The herald., 1895-03-06
FOR YOUNG WOnEN

Because you have found few straws in
the great haystack of knowledge that some
one of your acquaintance happens not to
have found, do not despise him and ad
mire yourself.
Remember that knowledge is for use
and not for show. If you have read to
feed your vanity, you have simply wasted
your time.
If higher education has not made you
realize your ignorance, has not taught
you humbleness and simplicity, then
higher education has done you harm.
You have learned your lessons awry,
have numbered your mind with trash. Do
not fancy that your mother is foolish
person because you have graduated at
Wellesley and her book education stopped
with the three RS. She can always read
you some lessons out OF q book called ex-
perience, of which she herself is the au-
thor, that exceed in importance any edu-
cation to be had at any unworthy on this
earth.
Do not fancy that George Sand s
trousers were the chief sign OF her genius.
Think it over long and seriously before
you decide against anything your moth
ers and fathers have believed for genera
tions. Hear both sides of the matter and
suspend judgment until you have heard.
Do not despise the dressmaker as a
part of the fabric of society. 1t is very
difficult matter for any woman to dress
WELL much more difficult and much more
important than the conjugation of a
Greek verb.
Do not believe that you will please
men by making show of profundity. If
the man is profound he will be disguised.
If he is stupid and shallow he will be
frightened
Ii you are beautiful and have nothing
else to recommend you think once in u
while of the real thoughts that are under
the adjoining surface of your admirers,
and be humble.
If you are not beautiful do not fancy
that you are so very much handicapped.
You are right when you console yourself
with the reflection that you at least have
wit or good manners.
Remember that there are few cases of
hopeless uglipess-that mental and pnysi-
cal adornment will work wonders.
Do not fancy that every man who is
polite to you has an idea, near OF remote,
Of making you his wife. -, u.
Do not put too much faith in
all the trash !, that has been writ
ten about men being as fools and blind
women who have furnished proof of this
have lost their regulations and their
chances of happiness in doing it,
Do not be too much concerned about
what the world will say. That leads to
hypocrisy. Remember that. the chief
thing is ones own self respect. 1t must
not be endangered for moment.
Do not fancy that because mock modesty
is immodesty therefore immodety is
modesty.
Do not think that the dressmaler is
everything in life? There should be
plenty of between times"
Do not be a slave to conventionality.
Remember that it is generality, and not
intended for particular cases. But be ex-
ceedingly sure and take the soundest ad-
vice about the particular cases.
Do not marry for money. No woman
ever did it yet who did not make patch.
work of her life. There are hours on
hours in life, and those the most important
hours, when money and the position it
brings are powerless to cheer, amuse or
console.
Do not marry without regard to the
money side of it. A matrimonial venture
without money is like venture at sea
without stores, rudder or sails.
Do not fancy that love is everything.
Love is voraciohs creature, and lives
and grows greatly upon things far more
substantial than kisses and protestations
of alteration.
Do not fancy that lore lis nothing.
There is no smile short of oan absolute
vacuum for life without love-
Do not allow yourself to marry as long
as you have any mental reservation about
the man.
Do not tell men that you never intend
to marry. We all know that every woman
and every man on this earth intends to
marry. The intention is often remote in
men. it is never remote enough to be
vague in young unmarried woman.
Do not let yourself be worried because
the right man does not come straightway.
Do not get in panic and do not rush
things. Spend your time in preparation,
Fritterings about millinery and other peo-
pies affairs are not preparation.
Remember that for women, as for men,
social distinction is not worth having I'M
til it can be commanded. Do not try to
kick your way in at the doors Of fashion.
You may succeed, but your self-respect
will be gone, and when you arrive you
will find those already there jeering and
sneering at you, and with good reason.
Wait until these people want you and
give you the chance to see whether you
want them or not.
Above all, be careful and rational and
serious in your judgments of men. Do
not put much faith in the theory of We
mans correct intuitions, about which SO
much fudge is afoat. Reason is better
than instinct, although instinct is of
much value to such as are incapable of
reason.
And all of this, if any Justice and
truth be in it, applies to the new woman
as well as to her Of the old school. In
fact, the new woman is nothing but the
old woman, conscious OF her eternal vir-
tues of clean, strong body and a straight
forward, active mind.
And to all such greeting and honor and
a prayer for federation Of these observa
tions set in the form of aphorisms. For,
as Goethe has well said, it is the eternal
feminine that leads us onward forever.
For her is all the striving, all the strain
ing OF brain and body. all the eagerness
of the race. And it is her smile that puts
q halo upon the victor and her sympathy
that smooths the face of the defeated.