sion; without it a girl may have plenitude of knowledge, and a
lamentable want of sweetness; so that one only second rate on her
intellectual side may be a thousand times more lovable than one who is
first rate on her intellectual side, but lacks that fine flavor of
character which comes from the expansion of noble inward forces,
disciplined and directed to good ends.

Every one understands that no character, however intellectual, is
worth anything that is not morally healthy; but morality in a woman
is not in itself sufficient. She must have in addition all those
charming virtues included in that word of many lights and shades and
subtle meanings--womanliness; that word which signifies such a variety
of things, but never anything but what is sweet and tender and
gracious and beautiful.

Dangerous Letter-Writing

Young women are proverbially fond of playing with edged tools, and of
all such dangerous playthings a habit of promiscuous, careless
letter-writing is the worst; for in most cases the danger is not
obvious at the time, and the writer may even have forgotten her
imprudence when she has to meet the consequences. The romance, the
gush, the having nothing particular to do, the almost insane egotism
which makes some young women long to exploit their own hearts, caused
poor Madaline Smith to write those foolish letters to a man whose
every good quality she had to invent, and who afterwards tortured her
with these very letters into a crime which made her stand for months
within the shadow of the gallows. She had not patience to await until
the real lover came, and then when he did come these fatal letters
stood between her and her happiness, and her fair name.

The very instinct which leads to constant letter-writing, goes with a
constitutional want of caution, and therefore indicates a necessity
for intelligent self-restraint. If young women, when writing letters,
would only project themselves into the future and imagine a time when
they might be confronted with the lines which they have just penned,
many an ill-advised missive would go into the fire instead of into the
mail bag. Indeed, if letters at all doubtful in spirit or intent were
laid aside until "next morning" many a wrong would be left undone,
many a friendship would be preserved unbroken, and many an imprudence
be postponed and so uncommitted. If indeed a woman could say
truthfully, "This letter is my letter, and if mischief comes of it I
alo