ion to other matters not so immediately connected
with religion, but which may seriously affect your prosperity and
happiness in this world. I fear that mamma is too much inclined to
discourage your going into society. If so, with all due deference
to my dear mother's experience and judgment, she has adopted a
mistaken view. You will perhaps say, you do not care for society.
So much the worse; that proves the evil of seclusion. I had the
same ideas once, and greatly to my disadvantage in a general sense,
although in one point they may have been beneficial, by making me
devote more time to my studies. But I am doubtful even about that.
At any rate, girls are differently situated. Having no need of deep
scientific knowledge, their education is confined more to the
ordinary things of the world, the study of the fine arts, and of
the manners and dispositions of people. It is often asserted that
women are much sharper than men in estimating character. Whether
that be the case or not, is more than I can say, but I think it
ought to be, because women have better opportunities and more
leisure than we have for noticing little peculiarities and the
natural expression of the features. Now, my advice would be, to go
as much as you can into quiet, good society, and moderately into
gay; not to make it the business of life, as some do, who care for
little beyond frivolous amusements, and that merely for the sake of
killing time. But go to these places, even if you do not like them,
as a duty you owe to yourself and others, even as you used to go to
school, when you would rather have remained at home.

You should cultivate, as much as possible, the acquaintance of
ladies from other parts of the country, especially of those who
have travelled much. This is the best way of rubbing off
provincialisms, etc. Perhaps you think you have none; nevertheless
I shall be prepared for some whenever I have the felicity of seeing
you. You cannot think how disagreeable the sound of the Devonshire
drawl is to me now, and all people of the county that I meet have
it more or less. You will, no doubt, wonder how I have become so
changed, and what has induced me to adopt social views so different
from those I formerly held. The fact is, that since I have been
here, I have been thrown into every variety of companionship, from
the highest to the lowest, from the educated gentleman and scholar
to the uncultivated boor. The first effect was, a disposition to