manufacture of watches and jewelry, and that almost every person who
goes there likes to buy some specimen of these manufactures as a
souvenir of their visit.

There is a great difference in ladies, in respect to the interest which
they take in dress and ornaments. Some greatly undervalue them, some
greatly overvalue them.

Some ladies, especially such as are of a very conscientious and
religious turn of mind, are apt to imagine that there is something wrong
in itself in wearing ornaments or in taking pleasure in them. But we
should remember that God himself has ornamented every thing in nature
that has not power to ornament itself. Look at the flowers, the fruits,
the birds, the fields, the butterflies, the insects; see how beautiful
they all are made by _ornaments_ with which God has embellished them.

God has not ornamented man, nor has he clothed him; but he has given him
the powers and faculties necessary to clothe and ornament himself. He
has provided him with the means, too, and with the means as much for the
one as for the other. There are cotton and flax which he can procure
from plants, and wool and fur from animals, for his clothing; and then
there are gold and silver in the earth, and rubies, emeralds, and
diamonds, for his ornaments; and if we are not to use them, what were
they made for?

They, therefore, seem to be in error who discard all ornaments, and
think that to wear them or to take pleasure in them is wrong.

But this, after all, is not the common failing. The danger is usually
altogether the other way. A great many ladies overvalue ornaments. They
seem to think of scarcely any thing else. They cannot have too many
rings, pins, bracelets, and jewels. They spend _all_ their surplus money
for these things, and even sometimes pinch themselves in comforts and
necessaries, to add to their already abundant supplies. This excessive
fondness for dress and articles for personal adornment is a mark of a
weak mind. It is seen most strongly in savages, and in people of the
lowest stages of refinement and cultivation. The opposite error, though
far less common, is equally an error; and though it is not the mark of
any weakness of the mind, it certainly denotes a degree of perversion in
some of the workings of it.

The morning after the return of our party to Geneva from their excursion
along the lake, they made their arrangements for leaving Geneva finally
on the following day.

"And now," said Mr. Hol