Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/98

90 some suitable occasion I shall refer to the subject, and endeavor to make her see that she has been guilty of a very serious fault. I feel strongly tempted to drop her altogether; but as I committed an error in doing this with Emily R, I will seek rather to correct her faults and strengthen her good qualities than to decline all friendly intercourse.”

This is the way in which false impressions about almost every one are propagated. The slightest fault, or peculiarity, is magnified into something serious, and the censorious whisper goes round, while the subject of it remains in entire ignorance of the detriment she suffers. Let every young lady set her face against this as a serious evil. Let her place a bridle upon her tongue, and upon her thoughts, lest she be betrayed, in an unguarded moment, into saying something against her young friend that may injure her in the estimation of others. The surest way to avoid this fault is to look more at the good in our friends than the evil. We are all perverse enough, all have evil tendencies enough, and are all frequently enough betrayed into acts and words that are wrong, to prompt us to be charitable towards others; and such reflections, if no others, should make us thoughtful and prudent in this matter.