him too, "who hath a high look and a proud heart," and who "privily
slandereth his neighbor." Do not heed the specious prattle about
"first love," and so place, irrevocably, the seal upon your future
destiny, before you have sounded, in silence and secrecy, the deep
fountains of your own heart. Wait, rather, until your own character
and that of him who would woo you, is more fully developed. Surely, if
this "first love" cannot endure a short probation, fortified by
"the pleasures of hope," how can it be expected to survive years of
intimacy, scenes of trial, distracting cares, wasting sickness,
and all the homely routine of practical life? Yet it is these that
constitute life, and the love that cannot abide them is false and must
die.

[Illustration: ROMAN LADIES.]


* * * * *

INFLUENCE OF FEMALE CHARACTER.


1. MORAL EFFECT.--It is in its moral effect on the mind and the heart
of man, that the influence of woman is most powerful and important. In
the diversity of tastes, habits, inclinations, and pursuits of the two
sexes, is found a most beneficent provision for controlling the force
and extravagance of human passion. The objects which most strongly
seize and stimulate the mind of man, rarely act at the same time and
with equal power on the mind of woman. She is naturally better, purer,
and more chaste in thought and language.