Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/212

204 And now, in conclusion, we beg of our fair young friends to lay deeply to heart the matters contained in this book, and to strive in all things to act from those godlike principles of love to others that were at first written on the human heart by the Creator. Every act of our lives affects some one either for good or for evil. We are constantly lending an impulse to the great effort in human society to return to true order and happiness, or retarding its movements. Of course, the effects of our actions are not limited to the individuals who first feel them, nor to the time in which we live. Our act is felt and reproduced with a greater or diminished force by the one who receives it. If we help others in the development of good principles, we give them power to do good that may effect beneficially hundreds, yea, thousands. There is no telling where the widening circle of influence may stop. And the same is true when by our acts we strengthen or force into activity the evil qualities which any one has inherited.

From this it may be seen how great is the responsibility resting upon each one of us, and how much good or evil we may do in our way through life.