commotions, it will be extremely difficult for her to escape its
counter-shock, and preserve her self-composure and serenity of soul
in the midst of those turbulent events which absorb her husband's
life, that of her children, of her father and brothers. If it was
easy for her to preserve her heart at a tender age from the
seductions of the world and the dangerous snares of vanity or
pleasure, through the sweet influence of those more modest, and at
the same time more rigid customs which identified her thoughts and
affections with the family circle; such is not the case at present,
for an unfortunate necessity, invested with the vain title of
propriety, compels her to seek in a more fashionable, a more
numerous, and consequently an unsuitable society, distractions or
pastimes for which she is not made, and which recreate neither body,
nor mind, nor heart.

The feverish agitation and insatiable thirst for enjoyment which
seem to prevail among all ages and classes of the present day is
enigmatical. Life now-a-days must be passed in a state of constant
excitement. The peaceful calm productive of a modest and pure life
appear to the imagination like a monotonous and disdainful sleep. The
young girl herself has scarcely left the paternal home in which she
passed her youthful days when she dreams of the pleasing emotions and
incomparable joys promised her by a flashy and fashionable life. The
examples which come under her notice wherever she goes or wherever
she turns her eyes,--the language which she hears, and the very air
which she breathes,--all give her, as it were, a foretaste of the
false pleasures which now fascinate her imagination.

This is, most assuredly, one of the worst signs of our time. Up to
the present day women, for the most part, faithful to their vocation