The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Young Lady's Mentor, by A Lady

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Young Lady's Mentor
A Guide to the Formation of Character. In a Series of Letters to Her Unknown Friends

Author: A Lady

Release Date: March 28, 2005 [eBook #15490]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG LADY'S MENTOR***

E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, David Newman, Cori Samuel, and the
Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from page images
generously made available by the Internet Archive Children's Library and
the University of California Library (Davis)

Note: Images of the original pages are available through the Internet
Archive Children's Library. See
http://www.archive.org/details/UF00002046

Images of pages 244-284 were kindly provided by Special Collections
at the University of California Library (Davis)

THE YOUNG LADY'S MENTOR

A Guide to the Formation of Character.
In a Series of Letters to Her Unknown Friends

by

A LADY.

Philadelphia:
H.C. Peck & Theo. Bliss.

1852

PREFACE

The work which forms the basis of the present volume is one of the most
original and striking which has fallen under the notice of the editor.
The advice which it gives shows a remarkable knowledge of human
character, and insists on a very high standard of female excellence.
Instead of addressing herself indiscriminately to all young ladies, the
writer addresses herself to those whom she calls her "Unknown Friends,"
that is to say, a class who, by natural disposition and education, are
prepared to be benefited by the advice which she offers. "Unless a
peculiarity of intellectual nature and habits constituted them friends,"
she says in her preface, "though unknown ones, of the writer, most of
the observations contained in the following pages would be
uninteresting, many of them altogether unintelligible."

She continues: "That advice is useless which is not founded upon a
knowledge of the character of those to whom it is addressed: even were
the attempt made to follow such advice, it could not be successful."

"The