Year: 1879

We have received from o young
lady question which is so interest
ing and invites our consideration of
a theme so delicate and delightful,
that we are fairly forced to answer it
at length. This is what she writes:


i.sIR: Win you be kind enough to tell me,
| are young ladies considered more lovely, and
thought preferable, at the ages of from eighteen
| to twenty-five, or nom twenty-five to twenty
five or six You will understand me; mean
do men most admire them. "B."


Before proceeding to our answer,
let us thank our lovely friend for re-
framing from any attempt to bias our
Judgment by giving even a hint of
her own age. She probably thought
that if she did SO, natural gallantry
might lead us away from cool, ju-
dicial view of the subject and tempt
us to give the preference to the types
of maidenfy beauty which appear in
young women of her confessed pears.
And we do not deny that such might
have been the case. As it is, we are
| left entirely in the dark as to the class
to which she herself belongs-wheth-
er she is between eighteen and twen-
ty-two, or between twenty-five and
twenty-five; and SO we are able to
answer her question on its intrinsic
merits.


LONELINESS in woman, though it
may vary in its character and mani
festations at different periods Of life,
is not the property Of youth only.
There is great and undeniable
charm in the fresh beauty of eigh-
teen, to which inexperience and early
romance lends perhaps additional
facinations. A pretty. girl of that
age, who has been untodthed by care,
and who knows OF the world through
imagination only, is very delightful
object; and many men may wish
they might take captive her first
affections


Between eighteen and twenty-five,
the changes of a girl, so far as the
charms of her person 60, are not
likely to be great; but in thst time,
by longer intercourse with society
and by natural development, she
may grow more companionable for
men of maturity, and her carriage
aud self-control become better and
greater. Those are important years
in a young woman's life, the years
during which, in our climate, the
majority of the sex are married. And
yet from twenty-five to twenty-five
or twenty-six, maiden may and
generally does still further advance
in attra:tiveness and add to the store
Of her charms. She is still young,
but she has outlived many youthful
fancies. and feels some of the dignity
of womanhood. No better ages than
those in maiden's life, and never
is she lovlier.


d.. A. y-=s~Is =''~rILy ~siA. rvs-v-~4
fairer women are to be found than
many of those between twenty six
and thirty, and even older? Girls of
eighteen may look on them as un-
sought old maids, and yet they are
in their womanly prime, and may
capture hearts tina: have been steeIed
against girlish facinations. Often
times they make the best OF wives,
and men find solace and compan-
ionship in their society which imma-
turity cannot give. They have the
advantage of experience, and they
have learned the lessons taught by
longer contact with the world, while
still they may not be averse to falling
in love.


No, we assure our fair friend, it is
not that woman is eighteen, or
twenty-six, or thirty, which makes
her lovely in the eyes of men. She
may be just as lovely at one age as
the other: brt inasmuch .,~".