Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/114

106 no other motive be strong enough, should prompt every one to seek its preservation.

Every young girl knows that she will, in a few years, have to take her place in society as a woman. Let her look at her mother and her mother’s friends, and see how much the well-being and happiness of others are dependent upon the retention of their lives and the preservation of their health. In a few years, she will, in all probability, stand in the same relation to society as her mother now does, and have as many duties to perform, involving the comfort and happiness of others. If, when this time come, through her youthful folly and indiscretion, her health be gone, her lot will be a sad one indeed. Pain and disability will attend the performance of even the most trifling duty, and she will be a burden to herself, and the source of anxiety and grief to her nearest and best friends; and, it may be, just as the tenderest ties that can bind a woman to earth are formed, death will rudely break them asunder.

What other considerations can we urge upon our fair young friends to induce them to regard the admonitions of those who love them, and are wiser than they are? The means of preserving health are accessible to all. There is not so