sorrows, for what can they know of sorrow? they whose feet have always
travelled in smooth places. Refinement of manner and delicacy of feeling
are essential qualities for every lady; but spare us the "dainty" woman.
In hospitals there are women, educated and refined, who witness sights
daily which cause them to sicken and shudder, but they are none the less
refined, because they look upon the suffering of some poor mortal, none
the less ladies, because they assist in alleviating the distress of
their own kind. But "dainty," they can not be, thank heaven! It is the
dainty woman who, if she sees a diseased, shabbily dressed mortal in
trouble, passes quickly to the other side for fear of contamination, if
she sees a child in distress hesitates, before offering help, to see if
it is cleanly, and then the hand she offers is so nerveless, helpless
and lifeless, so weak and vacillating that perhaps it would have been
just as well had she gone on her dainty way.

Again there are people who shut themselves in an armour of selfishness,
impervious alike to gaunt poverty and hollow-eyed sorrow. From the crown
of their heads to the soles of their feet is their world, they can
neither see nor hear beyond it. The good qualities of their neighbors
are seen through the large end of a telescope, appearing very small and
a long way off, while their own are magnified until they at last look
upon themselves as being the personification of all that is good and
holy, and it is very amusing to study such a one, to watch her manner of
addressing others. From the lofty pedestal of her own conceit, she
allows some poor mortal to approach her shrine, but her manner says, "so
far shalt thou come and no farther." Of what is she afraid? Has she fear
of contamination? Is her goodness and purity of such a perishable nature
that she fears pollution? Do not fear. If you possess innate goodness
and womanly qualities you can pass through dangers unharmed, you can
walk in the midst of sin and it will not touch you, you can take the