Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/156

148 a visiting acquaintance, nor, even in public assemblies, noticed, except with coldness and formality. His family connections, his education, manners, polish, intelligence, or ability to entertain, should be considered as nothing when put in the scale against his evil principles, and the irreparable wrong he has done in society.

It has always been a matter of surprise and regret to the writer to see so different a custom from this prevailing in society; and he has often been led to question the purity of mind of those young girls who seemed so eager to gain the notice and return the attentions of certain young men, notorious for their want of virtue. Until women themselves mark with appropriate condemnation the known vicious conduct of young men, and rigidly exclude all such from intimate intercourse with them, they suffer the moral atmosphere around them to remain in an unhealthy state; and its respiration, as a natural consequence, is detrimental to all who breathe it.

One reason, and a most important one, why a young lady should not admit to a friendly acquaintance any young man whom she has not the very best reasons for believing to be virtuous and honorable, is this: The highest and best, and therefore the happiest, social relation is that of marriage. A young lady cannot visit