This large class of malcontents generally find some way of
convincing themselves, however, that they are as good-looking as
the average of mankind. They make a good deal of some special
points of beauty, and imagine that these quite overshadow their
defects. Still, there is a portion of them who can never do this;
and I think of them with a sadness which it is impossible for me
to express. For a homely--even an ugly man--I have no pity to
spare. I never saw one so ugly yet, that if he had brains and a
heart, he could not find a beautiful woman sensible enough to
marry him. But for the hopelessly plain and homely sisters--"these
tears!" There is a class of women who know that they possess in
their persons no attractions for men,--that their faces are
homely, that their frames are ill-formed, that their carriage is
clumsy, and that, whatever may be their gifts of mind, no man can
have the slightest desire to possess their persons. That there
are compensations for these women, I have no doubt, but many of
them fail to find them. Many of them feel that the sweetest
sympathies of life must be repressed, and that there is a world of
affection from which they must remain shut out forever. It is hard
for a woman to feel that her person is not pleasing--harder than
for a man to feel thus. I would tell why, if it were necessary--
for there is a bundle of very interesting philosophy tied up in
the matter--but I will content myself with stating the fact, and
permitting my readers to reason about it as they will.

Now, if a homely woman, soured and discouraged by her lot, becomes
misanthropic and complaining, she will be as little loved as she
is admired; but if she accepts her lot good-naturedly, makes up
her mind to be happy, and is determined to be agreeable in all her
relations to society, she will be everywhere surrounded by loving