THE YOUNG WOMAN'S GUIDE

by

William A. Alcott




[Illustration: Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Ease and
alternate labour, useful life, Progressive virtue, and approving
Heaven! Thomson]

PREFACE.


This work was begun, soon after the appearance of the Young Man's
Guide--and was partially announced to the public. For reasons, however,
which I have not room to give in this place, it was thought proper to
defer its publication till the appearance of several other volumes in
the same spirit, involving more particularly the relative duties.

I wish to have it distinctly understood, that I do not propose to give
a complete manual of the social and moral duties of young women. Every
one has his own way of looking at things, and I have mine. Some of the
duties of young women have appeared to me to receive from other writers
less attention than their comparative importance demands; and others--
especially those which are connected with the great subject of
"temperance in all things"--I have believed to be treated, in several
respects, erroneously.