the contrast
between the true, healthful, religious feeling and the sham is
perfectly marked, even though both classes follow the same forms and
belong to the same charitable societies. With the one, religion seems
to be an accomplishment, with a rivalry as to who can carry it to the
finest point; with the other, it is a steadily growing power of
wholesome use.

This nervous strain from sham emotions, it must be confessed, is more
common to the feminine nature. So dangerously prevalent is it that in
every girls' school a true repression of the sham and a development of
real feeling should be the thoughtful, silent effort of all the
teachers. Any one who knows young girls feels deeply the terrible harm
which comes to them in the weakening of their delicate, nervous systems
through morbid, emotional excitement. The emotions are vividly real to
the girls, but entirely sham in themselves. Great care must be taken to
respect the sense of reality which a young girl has in these mistakes,
until she can be led out so far that she herself recognizes the sham;
then will come a hearty, wholesome desire to be free from it.

A school governed by a woman with strong "magnetism," and an equally
strong love of admiration and devotion, can be kept in a chronic state
of hysteria by the emotional affection of the girls for their teacher.
When they cannot reach the teacher they will transfer the feeling to
one another. Where this is allowed to pervade the atmosphere of a
girls' school, those who escape floods of tears or other acute
hysterical symptoms are the dull, phlegmatic temperaments.

Often a girt will go from one of these morbid attachments to another,
until she seems to have lost the power for a good, wholesome affection.
Strange as it may seem, the process is a steady hardening of the heart.
The same result comes to man or woman who has followed a series of
emotional flirtations,--the perceptions are dulled, and the whole tone
of the system, mental and physical, is weakened. The effect is in exact
correspondence in another degree with the result which follows an
habitual use of stimulants.

Most abnormal emotional states are seen in women--and sometimes in
men--who believe themselves in love. The suffering is to them very
real. It seems cruel to say, "My dear, you are not in the least in love
with that man; you are in love with your own emotions. If some one more
attractive should appear, you could at once transfer your emot