and willingness to be in some way or other _useful_; and,
though, with the foolish and vain part of _women_, fine clothes
frequently do something, yet the greater part of the sex are much too
penetrating to draw their conclusions solely from the outside
appearance. They look deeper, and find other criterions whereby to
judge. Even if fine clothes should obtain you a wife, will they bring
you, in that wife, _frugality_, _good sense_, and that kind of
attachment which is likely to be lasting?

Natural beauty of person is quite another thing: this always has, it
always will and must have, some weight even with men, and great weight
with women. But, this does not need to be set off by expensive clothes.
Female eyes are, in such cases, discerning; they can discover beauty
though surrounded by rags: and, take this as a secret worth half a
fortune to you, that women, however vain they may be themselves,
_despise vanity in men_.

SECTION XII. _Bashfulness and Modesty._

Dr. Young says, 'The man that blushes is not quite a brute.' This is
undoubtedly true; yet nothing is more clear, as Addison has shown us,
than that a person may be both bashful and impudent.

I know the world commend the former quality, and condemn the latter;
but I deem them both evils. Perhaps the latter is the greater of the
two. The proper medium is true modesty. This is always commendable.

We are compelled to take the world, in a great measure, as it is. We
can hardly expect men to come and buy our wares, unless we advertise or
expose them for sale. So if we would commend ourselves to the notice of
our fellow men, we must set ourselves up,--not for something which we
are not;--but for what, upon a careful examination, we find reason to
think we are. Many a good and valuable man has gone through _this_
life, without being properly estimated; from the vain belief that true
merit could not always escape unnoticed. This belief, after all, is
little else but a species of fatalism.

By setting ourselves up, I do not mean puffing and pretending, or
putting on airs of haughtiness or arrogance; or any affectation
whatever. But there are those--and some of them are persons of good
sense, in many respects, who can scarcely answer properly, when
addressed, or look the person with whom they are conversing in the
face; and who often render themselves ridiculous _for fear they shall
be so_. I have seen a man of respectable talents, who, in conversation
never r