Enquire Within Upon Everything: the Great Victorian Domestic Standby

If there be any among my Readers who, having turned over the pages of "Enquire Within," have hastily pronounced them to be confused and ill-arranged, let them at once refer to, and for ever hold their peace.


The Index is, to the vast congregation of useful hints and receipts that fill the pages of this volume, what the Directory is to the great aggregation of houses and people in London.


No one, being a stranger to London, would run about asking for "Mr. Smith." But, remembering the Christian name and the profession of the individual wanted, he would turn to the Directory, and trace him out.


Like a house, every paragraph in "Enquire Within" has its number,—and the Index is the Directory which will explain what Facts, Hints, and Instructions inhabit that number.


For, if it be not a misnomer, we are prompted to say that "Enquire Within" is peopled with hundreds of ladies and gentlemen, who have approved of the plan of the work, and contributed something to its store of useful information. There they are, waiting to be questioned, and ready to reply. Within each page some one lives to answer for the correctness of the information imparted, just as certainly as where, in the window of a dwelling, you see a paper directing you to "Enquire Within," some one is there to answer you.