I have called it "The Young WOMAN'S Guide," because there are many who
are accustomed to associate with the word lady; the idea of exemption
from labor, and of entire devotion to something supposed to be above
it--as fashionable company, or fashionable dress and equipage. And not
a few can hardly hear the word mentioned without disgust. Miss Sedgwick
has illustrated this part of my subject very happily in the first and
fifteenth chapters of her "Means and Ends." She says she does not write
exclusively for those who are termed young _ladies;_ because she
does not believe in any such fixed class, in the country. The term
_lady_, she also says, is too indefinite for any valuable use. We
not only apply it to those who are, or would be, above labor, but in a
great many other ways--as that "old lady," meaning, perhaps, some
beggar at the door, &c.

In short, she does not like the use of the phrase, young lady, at all.
Neither do I. Besides, I like best the good old fashioned term, YOUNG
WOMAN. This exactly represents the class for whom I write, and that,
too, without either explanation or qualification. It will be mistaken
by no one, nor will it be likely to give or cause any offence.

Finally, I call the work "The YOUNG Woman's Guide," because I design it
for those single persons of the female sex to whom the term young is
usually applied; viz., those who are from twelve or fourteen to
eighteen or twenty years of age--and to those, in general, who are
single. I hope, nevertheless, that it will contain some thoughts which
may be useful to those individuals who are in married life, as well as
to those who are below the age of twelve years. Many of its suggestions
and principles will, indeed, be applicable--so far as they are just or
true--to all mankind.