and sympathetic hearts, and find herself a greater favorite than
she would be were she beautiful. A woman who is entirely beyond
the reach of the jealousy of her own sex, is an exceedingly
fortunate woman; and if personal homeliness has won for her this
immunity, then homeliness has given her much to be thankful for. A
homely woman who ignores her face and form, cultivates her mind
and manners, good-naturedly gives up all pretension, and exhibits
in all her life a true and a pure heart, will have friends enough
to compensate her entirely for the loss of a husband. Friendship
is unmindful of faces, in the selection of its objects, even if
love be somewhat particular, and, sometimes, foolishly fastidious.

Life is altogether too precious a gift to be thrown away. A man
who would permit a field to be overgrown with weeds and thorns
simply because it would not naturally produce roses, would be very
foolish, particularly if the ground should only need cultivation
to enable it to yield abundantly of corn. Far be it from me to
depreciate physical symmetry and personal comeliness. They are
gifts of God, and they are very good; but there are better things
in this world than a good face, and better things than the
admiration which a good face wins. I am more and more convinced,
as the years pass away, that the choicest thing this world has for
a man is affection--not any special variety of affection, but the
approval, the sympathy, and the devotion of true hearts. It is not
necessary that this affection come from the great and the
powerful. If it be genuine, that is all the heart asks. It does
not criticize and graduate the value of the fountains from which
it springs. It is at these fountains particularly that the
unfortunates of the world are permitted to drink. They have only
to accept cheerfully the conditions of their lot, and to give free