in a great measure in our power. It makes us happier ourselves; it
enables us to reflect more happiness on others. I consider it
especially as a duty of the young, who have it in their power to
communicate happiness thereby in such large measure. Let them--let
young women especially--strive to cultivate it. It is in its nature a
perennial plant; and if it is not such at the present time, it is
because it has degenerated in a degenerate world. Let it be restored to
its pristine beauty; and let the world thereby--in connection with
other means tending to the same end--be restored to what it was before
the loss of Eden.

Discretion.--This is a virtue with which, it is supposed by some, the
young have little if any thing to do. I cannot assent to such an
opinion. I believe that the young are to be trained in the way they
should go; and as discretion is prominently a virtue of middle and
later life, I deem it desirable that we should see at least the germs
of it in the young.

Above all, do I like to see the young woman discreet. Discretion not
only heightens the pleasures of her existence, but adds greatly to her
reputation in the just estimation of the wise. Coupled with modesty, of
which I am to speak presently, it more than doubles her charms.

Let discretion then be studied. Let it be studied, too, for its
immediate as well as remote benefits. It will, indeed, bear fruit more
abundantly in later life; but it will not be without its value in
youth. It is a plant which it were worth while to cultivate, if human
existence were more frail, and life more uncertain of continuance than
it now is.