The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-01-30

wear our old maEtiilas another winter and there
are Mrs MS girls shining out in new visitesn
Mamma looks sensible and judcious and tells
the girls they ought not to see what people are
wearing in church Sundays but ii becomes evil
dent, before the week is through that she has not
forgotten the observation. She is anxiousy pri-
cling vistes, and looking thoughtful as one on the
eve Of an important determination and the next
Sunday the girls appear in full splendor, with
new visites to the increasing horror of Mrs ~
SO goes the shuttlecock back and forward, kept
up on both sides by most judicious hands.
| In like manner, at a modern party, a circle Of
matrons sit in edifying conclaye, and lament the
degeneracy Of the age.
"These parties that begin at nine o'clock and
end at two or three in the morning are shameful
things says fat Mrs. q, complacently tanning
herself IN. B. Mrs G. is plotting to have one
the very next week, and has come just to see the
fashions)
ooh, dreadful dreadful I" exclaiu, in one cho-
rus, meek Mrs. M. and tall Mrs. F. and stiff
Mrs J. ---s--'-'-'
"Tbey are very unhealthy" says Mrs F.
"They disturb all family orderD says Mrs ].
"They make one so sleepy the next day" says
Mrs M.
"They are very laborious to get up and en-
tirely useless" says Mrs O. At the same time
counting across the room the people that she shall
| invite next week.
Mrs. M and Mrs F. diverge into most edify-
| ing strain Of moral reflections on the Improvement
of time, the necessity of sobriety and moderation
the evils Of conformity to the world, till one is
tempted to feel that the tract society ought to
have their remarks for general circulation, were
one not damped by the certain knowledge that
before the winter each of these ladies will give
exactly such another party.
Aud, now, are all these respectable ladies hypo.
critical or insincere2 By. no means-they be-
lieve every word they say but q sort Of necessity
is laid upon them-s spell and before the breath
Of the multitude their individual resolution melts
q way rs me frosty traUvry hnvr,s h0m the window
panes of crowded room.
A great many do this habitually, resiguedly, as
S-~,'~' ,,s c'EEis, Ask per ~h1t .heptbink
to be right and proper, and they will tell you
sensibly, coherenty and quiteto the point, in one
| drection-ask them what they are going to do,
and that is quite another matter.
They are going to do what is generally done
what Mrs. A, B., and c., do They have long
since made over their conscience to the keeping of
the public-that is to say, Of good society-and
are thus rid of troublesome burden Of respon-
sibility.
Again there are others who mean in general to
have an opinion and will of their own; but, i'm
perceptibly, as one and another take course OPP
posed to their own sense of right and propriety,
individual outline Of it is gone, and they do as
others do
Yet is this influence Of one human being over
another--in some sense, God-appointed--a neces-
sary result of the human constitution. There is
scarcely human being that is not varied aud
swerved by it as the approaching magnet swerves
the trembling needle Oppose them, conflict with
them as they may, at distance, yet when they
breathe on them through the breath, and shine
on them through the eyes of an associate, in the
family or in society, they feel within themselves
an invisible magnetic power. He who is not at
all conscious of such impressibilty can scarce be
amiable, or human. Nevertheless, one of the most
important habits for the acquisition of generous
and noble character, is to learn to act individually,
unswerved by the feelings and opinions Of others
1t may help one to do this to reflect that the very
person whose opinion we fear may be in equal
| dread Of ours and that the person TO whom we
are looking for q precedent may, at that very
think that You could spend your Money more like
a Christian than in laying it out on fashionable
party, 20 forward and do it, aud twenty others,
| whose supposed opinion you fear, will be glad OF
your example for a precedent-and, Mrs b, If
YOU do think it would be better for your children
to observe early hours, and form simple habits,
than to dress and dance, and give and 60 to juve-
nile balls carry out your opinion in practice, and
u
opinion, will quote your example as her shield and
defence. And for you, young ladies, let us pray
you to reHect-individuaity of character, main
tanned with womanly sweetness, is an irresistible
grace and adornment. Have some principles of
taste for yourself and do not adopt every fashion
of dress that is in vogue whether it suits you or
not-whether it is becoming or not-but, without
a startling variation from general form, let your
dress show something of your own taste and opin-
ILL., =. .s.lt r.x1x
for yourself, and do not do everything that every
one else does because every one else does 1t.
Nothing is more tedious than circle Of young
ladies who have got by rote certain set of
phrases and opinons-all edmiring in the same
terms the same things, and detesting in like terms
certain others-with anxious soGcitude each dress
ing thinking, and acting, one as much like another
as is possible. A genuine original opinion, even
though it were so heretical as TO assert that Jenny
Lind is not superapgelc, or that Shakespeare ia
rather dull reading, would be better than such a
universal Dead Sea Of acquiescence.
These remarks have borne reference to the
female sex principally, because they are the de-
pendent the acquiescent sex-both from nature
and habit and position, most exposed to be swayed
by opinion-snd yet, too, in certain very wide
department, they are the lawgivers and custom
makers of society II, amid the multiplied schools
whose advertisements now throng our papers,
purporting to teach girls everything, both an
cient and modern, high and low, from playing on
the harp and working pincushons, up to civil
engineering, surveying, and navigation, there
were any which could teach them to be women
to have thoughts opinions and modes Of action OF
their own-such a school would be worth having
Ii one half of the good purposes which are in the
hearts of the ladies of nation were only acted
out without fear of anybody's opinion, we should
certainly be step nearer the millennium