ry
word uttered, and every deed performed, should be maturely weighed.
A discreet lady will not only be careful to avoid evil itself,
but will studiously refrain from everything which has even the
appearance of evil.

"Whatever dims thy sense of truth,
Or stains thy purity,
Though light as breath of summer air,
Count it as sin to thee."

Young women frequently err in their understanding of what it is that
gives them a good name, and imparts their chief attraction. Many
seem to imagine that good looks, a gay attire, in the extreme of
fashion, and a few showy attainments, constitute everything
essential to make them interesting and attractive, and to establish
a high reputation in the estimation of the other sex. Hence they
seek for no other attainments. In this, they make a radical mistake.
The charms contained in these qualities, are very shallow, very
worthless, and very uncertain. There can no dependence be placed
upon them.

If there is one point more than another, in this respect, where
young ladies err, it is in regard to DRESS. There are not a few who
suppose that dress is the most important thing for which they have
been created, and that it forms the highest attraction of woman.
Under this mistaken notion--this poor infatuation--they plunge into
every extravagance in their attire; and, in this manner, squander
sums of money, which would be much more profitably expended in
storing their minds with useful knowledge, or, in some cases, even
in procuring the ordinary comforts of life.

There is a secret on this point I would like to divulge to young
women. It is this--That any dress, which from its oddness, or its
extreme of fashion and display, is calculated to attract very
particular attention, is worn at the expense of the good name of its
possessor. It raises them in the estimation of none; but deprives
them of the good opinion of all sensible people. It gives occasion
for suspicion, not only of their good sense, but of their habits of
economy. When a young woman is given to extravagant displays in
dress, it is but publishing to the world, her own consciousness of a
want of other attractions of a more substantial nature. It is but
virtually saying, "I seek to excite attention by my dress, because I
have no other good quality by which I can secure attention."

Could a young woman who passes through the streets decked out
extravagantly in all that the milliner and dress-maker can furn