, or the faults of his connections, and
his own misdemeanors, will be carefully kept out of view. Thus will the
inward man be perpetually overflowing with Christian courtesy.

Good Sense is another requisite of female civility. "The excitable
imagination and ardent feelings of woman," says a female writer, "expose
her to exaggeration of sentiment." Ignorant and weak women mortify their
friends and disgust many others, in society. They talk for the sound's
sake, giving flippant utterance to the commonplaces of the day. But did
God endow this sex with speech, to be exercised only on folly and
nonsense? No, we have seen too many living examples to the contrary, of
women

"alike from careless levity remote,
And a behavior schooled by selfish rules,
Alike removed from rashness and from fear."

Is not this better than the indulgence in perpetual trifling and tattle?

How long shall it be charged on this sex that they often yield, without
an attempt at self-control, to their supposed natural volatility? If man
be constitutionally grave, and life be with him all a serious affair,
then should woman supply this want by careful self-culture. I would not
frown on the innocent gratifications of the tongue; but I would entreat
this sex, instead of seeking their pleasure in discussing the concerns
of their neighbors, to pause, consider, and resolve that they will set
their feet in a new path. Do not reveal the secrets of a family, because
accidentally made acquainted with them, or privileged with their
intimacy. Disdain, as unworthy your nature and your sex, the practice of
prying into the domestic affairs of others. Cultivate a taste for
reading, and talk of books and principles, not persons. And never forget
that "for every idle word you must give account" hereafter. Be so filled
with good sense and knowledge, that of you it may be said, mark

"that fund of truth and sense,
Which though her modesty would shroud,
Breaks like the sun behind the cloud."

Good Taste is needful in society. There are those, who so appear, as
"thoughtless of gracefulness, to be yet grace itself." This is the
native endowment of some; but all may approximate toward it. Propriety
is a rich ornament of female speech. Modesty is a cardinal point in good
taste. But let it be sincere. In the early ages of Rome, the women, in
general, wore veils in public. Latterly they were worn by certain of the
beautiful, but disr