to check energy and retard improvement. I would only advise
people--impulsive people especially--to think _before_ they act: for it is
always easier to avoid an evil than to remedy it. Thou art fond of
History," she continued, "and that, both sacred and profane, abounds with
examples of those who, in the day of adversity or retribution, have wished,
oh how earnestly, that they had let well enough alone. Jacob, an exile from
his father's house: Shimei, witnessing the return of David: Zenobia,
high-spirited and accustomed to homage, gracing Aurelian's triumph, and
living a captive in Rome: Christina, after she had relinquished the crown
of Sweden; and, in our own days, Great Britain, involved in a long and
losing war with her American colonies. Every-day life, too, is full of such
examples." I asked her to mention some. "Thou canst see one," she answered,
"in the speculator, whose anxiety for sudden wealth has reduced his family
to indigence; and in the girl who leaves her plain country home, and
sacrifices her health, and perhaps her virtue, in a city workshop.
Disputatious people, passionate people, those who indulge in personalities,
and those who meddle with what don't concern them, are very apt to wish
they had let well enough alone. People who are forever changing their
residence or their store, their clerks, or their domestics, frequently find
reason for such a wish. Even in household affairs, my maxim saves me many
an hour of unnecessary labor. Dost thou remember the bedstead?" she added,
with a smile. "Yes, indeed," I answered; "I shall never forget that. The
other day I was going to alter my pink dress into a wrapper, like Miss
Mansell's; but the thought of that old bedstead stopped me; and I'm glad of
it; for, now that I look again, I don't think it would pay me for the
trouble." "Well, think again before thou dost notice Jane Ansley's talk,"
said Aunty. I followed her advice; and I have never regretted that I did
so.

Dear old lady! I left her when that pleasant year was ended, and never saw