The Hawaiian gazette., 1875-04-28
HAWAIIAN GAZETTE
AN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL,
TO HAWAIIAN PROGRESS.
Advice to a Young Lady.

course at Stanton, Virginia. Young la
dies generally may find instruction and
improvement by careful perusal:
GALVESTON. February %, 1875.
Ny Dean: At your good mothers
request have consented to make some
suggestions as to course of reading for
you.
Before doing so let me teach you a few
simple truths which observation and expe-
rience have taught me-
Its quite as important, in every respect,
to cultivate your body as to cultivate
your mind. No amount of mental acqui-
sitions will compensate for the lack of a
strong, elastic, healthful physical system.
l shall have accomplished my purpose, if
you viii take my word for it, that you
have it in your power in great measure
to make and keep your body strong, elias
tic and healthy. To this end, plenty of
sleep, open air and exercise, are the only
physicians you need to consult. Most hui
man ills flow directly from the stomach.
1t must have rest like any other organ.
Make it a part of your religion never to
taste food more than three times a day,
and never to taste any article of food
which you have found to be indigestible
You must be your own judge of this.
What you ought to eat requires as much
careful consideration as what you ought
to read. You must depend on habit, &C
quired little by little, to make any course
of life you may choose to adopt agreeable
to you. Should you ever give way to de-
spondency, as to acquiring any desirable
habit, remember that men by dint of per-
severance, learn to use tobacco and strong
drink, and to be unhappy without them.
No task you are likely to set for yourself
can be equal to this.
How you read is quite as important as
what you read. Most people waste all
the time they spend in reading. Mental
dyspepsia is almost as common a disease as
physical dyspepsia, and is brought on by
the same means, viz, by devouring more
food and more rapidly than it can be di-
gested. There is no greater error than to
read maly books, except it be to read hur-
riedly and without pause. What is not re-
tanned in the memory is lost, and memory
depends on the amount of attention be-
slowed, and the time a thought is kept be-
fore the mind. The power to fix the at
tention and to keep thought before the
mind grows imperceptibly, but surely, by
use. Consider, then, no book properly
read, unless you have made the tone, the
spirit, the thought of the author your own.
Read no longer at one time than you feel
a vivid interest in your book. And let
me insist that you keep Webster's or
Worcester's Unabridged Dictionary al
ways at hand, and let no strange word
pass without critical inspection.
We think in words, and therefore, to
think clearly, and to speak accurately, you
uluSJ hHON JIG GAdCJ LledLluS5 Vi WoTus.
They are, in fact, the key to all knowl-
edge.
By no means neglect to read aloud a
short time every day, with careful atten-
ton to the one golden rule of elocution,
viz: Read in the same tone and manner
in which you would utter the same senti-
ments in conversation. This practice will
educate your ear as well as your tongue.
The cultivation of your voice in ordinary
speechis altogether more important to you
than all the vocal gymnastics of the opera
house.
"Do1 Cupid hath not in all his quivers choice
An arrow for the heart like sweet voice.
Commit to memory some fine passage in
prose or verse almost daily, not by any
means for quotation, but to give you facili.
ty and power of expression. You will
have reaped only part of the benefits of
mental culture if you fail to acquire the
power of expressing your thoughts in just
and appropriate language, and with dis
tinct, clear, well modulated voice. In the
of words, avoid the temptation
to be fine, fowery and high-fown. Good
taste rejects the star-spangled-banner style
in speech and writing, as it does in dress
and manners.
1 set out to write you mere song, and
have written almost sermon. Let me
by giving you a few brief hints
about books.
You cannot go amiss if you will read
The works of the best authors. Learn to
owe Shakespeare, Addison, Swift, Gold
smith, Johnson, Sheridan, Burns, Words
worth. Moore, Walter Scott, Bulwer, Ma
,aulay, Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson,
Washington Irving, and you may then
we'll lay claim to having finished educa-
ion. have mentioned only few of the
great names of literature, and have pur-
oosely omitted one of the greatest of them
III, Byron, because his "Don Juan" the
highest effort of his genius, should not be ]
cad by you at all 1 especially recon-
mend Byron's letters as the best model {