Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/131

Rh in the strictest obedience,—obedience to reason,—and that, at her tender age, her own reason is not sufficiently matured, but must be strengthened and guided towards sound conclusions by the experience of others. To her parents she must, therefore, still look; and she is as much bound to obey the voice of reason speaking through them, as she was before bound to obey the voice of authority. If heedless of this voice of reason thus speaking, she must not wonder if she commit serious errors, that may entail upon her years, it may be a lifetime, of suffering and repentance.

From what has been said, let it not be supposed that a young lady should not cultivate the habit of thinking for herself, nor seek the guidance of her own reason, properly enlightened. No; this is essential to the moral health and true well-being of every individual. All that is meant is, that every young lady should willingly receive the aid of others’ reason and experience, to enable her to decide in her own mind what is right for her to do under certain circumstances. So much inclined will she be to act from feeling and impulse, that she will find all such aids of the first importance; and she will be in much more danger of acting from her own impulses