perhaps, the most fascinating, and, of course, the most dangerous of any
that fall under that description. When indulged to excess, beside
engrossing much time which ought to be employed in the execution of more
necessary and useful designs, they sometimes allure their fond votaries
from that purity and rectitude which are the chief embellishments of the
female character. They lay the mind open to many temptations, and, by
nourishing a frivolous vanity, benumb the nobler powers both of
reflection and action.
“Levitia was endowed, by the joint influence of nature and art, with
these pleasing charms. Symmetry was perfected in her form; and her voice
was melody itself. Her parents were not in affluent circumstances; yet
their taste led them to distinguish those graces and talents in their
daughter, which they injudiciously flattered themselves might, one day,
raise her to affluence and fame. Hence they spared no pains nor expense,
in their power to bestow, to assist her inclination and gratify her
wishes. As she advanced in years, she assiduously cultivated and
diligently improved those endowments which she had been erroneously
encouraged, and even taught, to consider most valuable. To adorn her
person, regulate her movements, and practise her music, was all her
care. Nor had she a wish beyond the pleasures, which she fancied they
could yield. Her mind resembled a garden, in which the useful plants
were overrun and choked by noxious weeds. Here and there, a gaudy flower
rears its brilliant head, and proudly dares to arrest the eye; while the
delicate and useful lie buried and concealed in the surrounding waste!
“Flattery was pleasing to her ear, in whatever form it was presented.
The gay and licentious sought her society; and vanity with its attendant
train of follies led her imagination far from the sphere of life which
Providence had assigned her. Her parents saw their own mistake, and were
alarmed at her’s: but, alas! too late were their endeavors to prevent
the mischiefs which impended. They could not supply her unbounded wants;
and therefore to gratify her ruling passion, she deemed means of her own
invention indispensable. Among her admirers was a foreigner, who,
failing of success in his own country, sought a subsistence in ours,
from the stage. He knew Levitia’s talents. These might give her the palm
of applause, and in his way of life, render her conspicuous. This plan
he communicated to her, insidiously offering to become her guardian, and
to put her under the protection of such friends as should defend her
honor, and ensure her success. She was pleased with the project. Wholly
unacquainted with the world, and unsuspicious of the subtle arts of the
deluding libertine, she scrupled not his veracity, but listened to his
insinuating declarations of love and friendship. She was deceived by the
vanity of appearing where her fancied merit would meet with the
encouragement and reward it deserved; and vainly imagining that her
beauty might secure her elevation and affluence, she readily consented
to the fatal experiment, eloped from her father’s house, and became a
professed actress.
“Her parents were overwhelmed with grief and anxiety, at the discovery;
but to no purpose were all their exertions to reclaim her. She had left
them, no more to return; left them, too, with the heart-rending
reflection, that they themselves had heedlessly contributed to her
disgrace and ruin. But bitter indeed were the fruits of her disobedience
and folly!
“She made her appearance on the stage. She sung and danced, for which
she was caressed, flattered, and paid. A licentious mode of life
quadrating with the levity of her heart, soon left her a prey to
seduction. Her gaiety and beauty gained her many votaries, and she
became a complete courtezan.
“In the midst of this career, her mother died of a broken heart,
evidently occasioned by her undutiful and vicious conduct. A sense of
her ingratitude to her parents, and her shameless manner of life struck
her mind, not naturally unfeeling, with such force, as to throw her into
a fever which undermined her constitution, deprived her of her beauty,
ruined her voice, and left her without means of support. Her pretended
lover, finding she could no longer be useful to him, perfidiously
abandoned her to poverty and shame. She returned, like the prodigal, to
her unhappy father, who received, but could not assist her. Her
behavior, with its consequences in the death of her mother, had impaired
his health, depressed his spirits, and rendered him incapable of
providing for himself.
“She is now despised and avoided by all her former acquaintance, and
must inevitably spend the remainder of her days in wretchedness.
“Let us turn from this disgusting picture, and behold its contrast in
the amiable Florella. To beauty of person she superadds delicacy,
sensibility, and every noble quality of the mind. Respectful to her
superiors, affable, cheerful, and polite to her equals, and
condescendingly kind to her inferiors, Florella is universally esteemed,
beloved and admired. Of the pleasing accomplishments of music and
dancing she is a consummate mistress. Yet she is superior to the vain
arts of flattery, while the dignity of conscious virtue raises her far
above the affectation of false modesty and diffidence. To please and
oblige those friends who are interested in her happiness, and gratified
by her performances, is her delight. Nor does she think it necessary, by
feigned excuses, to delay the pleasure, which she is able to afford; but
willingly enhances that pleasure by a ready and cheerful compliance.
This she thinks the best return she can make for their kind attention.
Though delighted with these amusements herself, she, nevertheless,
considers them as amusements only; and assiduously cultivates the more
solid branches of her education. These, she is wont to say, may render
me useful and happy, when the voice of music shall be brought low, and
when the sprightly limbs shall become languid and inactive.
“How happy her parents in her filial duty and affection! How rich the
reward of their care and expense in contributing to her improvements!
How happy Florella in their complacency and love, and in the
consciousness of deserving them!
“She was, not long since, addressed by a gentleman, who was pleasing to
her fancy; but, determined never to indulge a sentiment of partiality
without the entire approbation of her parents, she referred him to their
decision. For particular reasons, they disapproved of his suit. She
acquiesced without reserve, and immediately dismissed him. Who would not
rather be a resembler of Florella, than a vain, imprudent, and ruined
Levitia?
“True, indeed, the acquirements and graces of Florella are not
attainable by every one; but the virtues of discretion, modesty, and
kindness are within the reach of the humblest sphere, and the most
moderate abilities.”
_Wednesday, A. M._
MISCELLANEOUS DIRECTIONS
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TEMPER AND MANNERS.
“I shall now,” said Mrs. Williams, “endeavor to sketch out for you the
plan of conduct, which I think will be most conducive to your honor and
happiness while in a single state. Hitherto you have been under the
direction of parents, guardians, and instructors, who have regulated
your deportment, and labored to give you just ideas upon every subject
and occasion. That period is now over. You are now launching into life;
where you will think and act more for yourselves.
“The path of rectitude, my dear young friends, is narrow and intricate.
Temptations lurk around to beguile your feet astray; and dangers which
appear insurmountable will often arise to affright you from the ways of
virtue.
“But remember that a crown of honor and happiness awaits the undeviating
pursuit of truth and duty. Let religion be your guide, and discretion
your handmaid. Thus attended, you will escape the snares of youth, and
surmount the perplexing cares of more advanced age. At your entrance on
the stage of action, the allurements of pleasure will spread innumerable
charms to court your acceptance. Beware of their fascinating wiles; and
whatever course you adopt, be sure it is such as will bear the test of
examination and reflection. Let these be the criterion of all your
pursuits and enjoyments. Make it an invariable practice to re-trace the
actions and occurrences of the day, when you retire to rest; to account
with your own hearts for the use and improvement of the past hours; and
rectify whatever you find amiss, by greater vigilance and caution, in
future; to avoid the errors into which you have fallen, and to discharge
the duties incumbent upon you.
“To neglect this, will be a source of great inadvertencies and failings.
“To know yourselves, in every particular, must be your constant
endeavor. This knowledge will lead you to propriety and consistency of
action. But this knowledge cannot be obtained without a thorough and
repeated inspection of your various passions, affections, and
propensities. When obtained, however, it will prevent the ill effects of
flattery, by which you will doubtless be endangered, as you advance into
the scenes of fashionable life. It will enable you to distinguish
flattery from that generous praise which is the effusion of a feeling
heart, affected by the perception of real merit. A young lady, unskilled
in the deceitful arts of a giddy world, is very apt to be misled by the
adulation which is offered at the shrine of vanity. She is considered as
a mark for the wit of every coxcomb, who wishes to display his
gallantry.
“Flattery is a dazzling meteor, which casts a delusive glare before the
eye; and which seduces the imagination, perverts the judgment, and
silences the dictates of sound reason. Flattery is, therefore, the
poison and bane of the youthful mind. It renders the receiver blind to
those defects which she ought to see and rectify, and proud of imaginary
graces which she never yet possessed. Self-knowledge, as before
observed, will facilitate the detection of this disguised adversary, by
enabling you to investigate your real accomplishments and merits.
“That praise which is the result of deserved approbation from those,
whose good opinion you wish to enjoy, is worthy your attention and
grateful acceptance: but the fulsome compliments and hyperbolical
professions of unmeaning and empty pretenders, calculated only to fill
the imagination with the inflammable air of self-conceit and arrogant
pride, should be rejected with disdain, and cordially despised by every
lady of sense and sentiment, as an insult upon her understanding, and an
indignity to her sensibility.
“Let it, therefore, be known to those who court your favor by an
ostentatious parade of admiration and obsequiousness, that their
dissimulation and duplicity are discovered, and that you are superior to
such futility.
“In order to discriminate between flattery and merited praise,
critically examine your own heart and life. By this mean you will
ascertain what is really your due, and what is merely the effect of this
insidious art. But let no ideas of your own endowments, however just,
elate you with an opinion of your superior powers of pleasing.
“Be not ostentatious of your charms, either of person or mind. Let
modesty, diffidence, and propriety regulate you, in regard to each.
Exalted advantages will render you an object of envy to the weak minded
of your own sex, and of satire to the ill-natured part of the other.
Never obtrude even your real graces and accomplishments upon the world.
The penetrating and judicious will see and applaud them, while retiring
from the gaze of a misjudging and misrepresenting throng.
“Naked in nothing should a woman be,
But veil her very wit with modesty;
Let man discover; let her not display;
But yield her charms of mind with sweet delay.”
“Those who are solicitous for beauty should remember that the expression
of the countenance, in which its very essence consists, depends on the
disposition of the mind.
“What’s female beauty, but an air divine,
Through which the mind’s all gentle graces shine?
These, like the sun, irradiate all between;
The body charms, because the soul is seen.
Hence men are often captives of a face,
They know not why; of no peculiar grace.
Some forms, though bright, no mortal man can bear;
Some, none resist, tho’ not exceeding fair.”
Beauty, my dear girls, is indeed a desirable quality. Neither the pen of
the moralist, nor the spleen of the satirist, nor the envy of such as
want it, could ever bring it into contempt or neglect. Yet mere external
beauty is transient as the meteor, and frail as the bubble, which floats
on the surface of the watery element.
“Behold the disconsolate and despised Flirtilla! and from her fate learn
not to trust in the effects or duration of this adventitious quality.
“Early in life, Flirtilla was taught that her charms were irresistible;
that she might aspire to an absolute ascendency over the hearts and
passions of her votaries. A superficial, but fashionable education added
the allurements of art to those of person, and rendered her a finished
coquette.
“Her beauty and the gaiety of her manners gained her numerous admirers,
who swarmed around, like the insect tribe, eager to sip the fragrance of
the equally fair and fading rose. The incense of flattery, in every
form, was her tribute.
“Elated by this, she gave free scope to her ruling passions, the love of
pleasure and dissipation. Her best days were spent in the chase of
vanity; and she culled the flowers of life, without considering, that
substantial fruit would be required at a more advanced period, as a
substitute for the fading blossoms of youth. Her mind was barren of
improvement, and consequently destitute of resources.
“She vainly imagined the triumphs of beauty to be permanent, till its
declared enemy, the small-pox, convinced her of the egregious mistake.
By this she found her empire suddenly overturned. The merciless disorder
had reduced her to a level with the generality of her sex, in
appearance, and, in enjoyment far below them. Her glass faithfully
represented this insupportable reduction. Regret and chagrin heightened
the apparent calamity. She was remembered only as the contrast of what
she once had been. Her lovers were disgusted with the change, and sought
more pleasing objects of attention; while men of sentiment could not
find a similarity of disposition, in her, to induce a connexion.
“Her female acquaintance, who had envied her as a rival, or feared her
as a superior, now insulted her with their pity, or mortified her by
remarks on the surprising alteration in her appearance.
“Finding no alleviation from society, she retired from the world to
nurse, in solitude, the vexation and disappointment she experienced.
“View her now, peevish, discontented, and gloomy! Her ideas of pleasure
were centered in that person, which is now neglected; in those
endowments which have now forsaken her forever!
“Thought she studiously shuns; for she has nothing pleasing to occupy
her reflections, but what is irretrievably lost!
“Miserable Flirtilla! thou trustedst in vanity, and vanity is thy
recompense! How happy mightest thou have been, even in this change, if
thy heart had been rectified, thy understanding improved, and thy mind
liberally stored with useful sentiments, knowledge, and information!
“Cultivate, then, my young friends, those dispositions and attainments,
which will yield permanent and real satisfaction, when sickness,
adversity, or age shall have robbed your eyes of their lustre, and
diminished the bloom and sprightliness of your forms.
“You are doubtless sensible that your happiness, in life, does not
depend so much on your external, as your internal graces.
“The constitutional temper of your minds was given you by nature; but
reason is added for its regulation.
“On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail;
Reason the chart; but passion is the gale.”
“Our passions were certainly implanted for wise and benevolent purposes;
and, if properly directed, may be of great utility. This direction
nature will teach, and education improve. To their precepts we must
implicitly listen, if we would become respectable or contented.
“Examine yourselves, therefore, with impartial scrutiny. Find out your
particular faults in this respect, and exert your unwearied industry to
amend them.
“Possibly you may be naturally hasty, passionate, or vindictive. If so,
how wretched, at times, must the indulgence of this temper render you!
When reason, awhile suspended, resumes its empire, and calm reflection
succeeds the riot of passion, how severe must be your self-condemnation,
and how keen your sensations of regret! Perhaps an unkindness of
expression to some particular friend, disrespectful treatment of an
honored superior, ill-timed resentment to a beloved equal, or imperious
and unbecoming severity to a deserving inferior, may give you the most
painful emotions, and degrade you in your own, as well as in the
estimation of every observer! To prevent this evil, accustom yourselves
to check the first risings of anger, and suspend every expression of
displeasure, till you can deliberate on the provocation, and the
propriety of noticing it. It may have been undesigned, and, therefore,
not justly provoking. You may have misunderstood the word, or action of
offence, and inquiry may remove the grounds of your suspicion: or the
person offending may be one with whom prudence and honor require you not
to enter the lists. But if neither of these considerations occur,
reflect a moment, that your own reputation and consequent happiness are
at stake and that to lose the command of yourselves and your passions is
inconsistent with the delicacy of ladies, the moderation of Christians,
and the dignity of rational beings.
“Let every sally alarm, and excite you to rally and new-discipline your
forces; and to be more strictly on your guard against the assaults of
your foe.
“The character of Camilla is a pattern worthy of your imitation. While
very young, Camilla was unfortunately deprived of the instruction and
regulating hand of a discreet and judicious mother. Her father was too
much immersed in business to attend to the cultivation of his daughter’s
mind.
“He gave her the means of a genteel education, praised her excellencies,
and chid her faults, without being at the pains of teaching her how to
amend them. The irritability of her temper he rather indulged,
considering her as a girl of _spirit_, who would make her way in the
world, in spite of obstacles. She was naturally generous,
tender-hearted, and humane; but her temper was as uncontrollable as the
whirlpool, and as impetuous as the wind. Happily for her, she had an
uncommon strength of mind, a ready apprehension, a quick perception, and
a depth of understanding, seldom equalled. She saw her errors, was
conscious of her failings, and a severe sufferer for her faults. But
such was the extreme quickness of her feelings, and so passionate her
resentment of any thing which appeared injurious or affrontive, that she
could not always repress them. She married a gentleman of a similar
temper, and of equal prudence. In the union of such violent spirits,
great harmony could not be presaged. Their passions were lively, their
affections ardent.
“The honey-moon in raptures flew,
A second brought its transports too;
The third, the fourth, were not amiss;
The fifth was friendship, mixed with bliss;
But ere a twelvemonth passed away,
They found each other made of clay.”
“Inadvertencies gave offence; frequent altercations arose; both were
tenacious of their rights, and averse to condescension. Camilla saw the
impending danger; she became sensible that the happiness of her life
depended on amendment and caution; she resolved to avoid giving or
taking offence, with the greatest diligence; to suppress every emotion
of anger; and when she thought herself injured, to retire or be silent,
till passion had subsided, and she could regain her calmness.
“This was a hard task, at first; but perseverance rendered it effectual
to a thorough reformation in each.
“Her example and pathetic admonitions induced her husband to adopt her
prudent plan. They found their mutual endeavors productive of real
satisfaction, and happiness the reward of their exertions to secure it.
“To be vindictive is equally, perhaps more fatal to our own, and the
peace of others, than to be passionate. Violent passions of all kinds
are generally transient; but revenge is the offspring of malice, the
parent of discord, and the bane of social love. It is an evidence of a
weak and sickly mind. True greatness will rise superior to this ignoble
spirit, so peculiarly ungraceful in a lady, and inconsistent with that
delicacy and softness, which ought ever to characterize the sex.
“But an envious temper is, of all others, the most degrading and
miserable. Envy is a malignant poison, which rankles in the heart, and
destroys the inward peace, even while there is an outward appearance of
serenity. That mind, which cannot rejoice in the happiness of others, is
capable of very little in itself. To look with a grudging and evil eye
on the enjoyments of our neighbor, must be a source of perpetual chagrin
and mortification.
“Envy indulged, is a punishment to its possessor. Eradicate, then, the
first, and every emotion of so corroding and destructive a nature; and
endeavor to excel only by that virtuous emulation, which is productive
of improvement and respectability.
“A kind, compassionate, benevolent, humane disposition is an invaluable
treasure. It will render you blessings to society, and objects of
universal esteem.
“In _you_ ’tis graceful to dissolve at wo;
With every motion, every word, to wave
Quick o’er the kindling cheek the ready blush;
And from the smallest violence to shrink.”—
“This amiable temper, however, may sometimes degenerate into weakness.
“Prudence should be exercised, even in the indulgence of the most
engaging qualities. In the progress of life, occasions may call for that
resolution and fortitude, which admit not of apparent softness; but such
occasions very seldom occur.
“How alluring are the charms of sympathy and charity! Happy are they who
always feel the one, and have power and inclination to exemplify the
other!
“The diamond and the ruby’s blaze
Dispute the palm with beauty’s queen;
Not beauty’s queen demands such praise,
Devoid of virtue if she’s seen.
But the soft tear in pity’s eye
Outshines the diamond’s brightest beam,
And the sweet blush of modesty
More beauteous than the ruby’s seen.”
_Wednesday, P. M._
DRESS.
“Dress,” continued Mrs. Williams to her re-assembled and attentive
pupils, “is an important article of female economy. By some it is
doubtless considered as too essential. This is always the case, when it
becomes the ruling passion, and every other excellence is made
subordinate to it. A suitable attention to the etiquette of appearance
is necessary to render us respectable in the eyes of the world and
discovers an accommodating disposition, which is, at once, engaging and
useful in the commerce of society. Females are taxed with being
peculiarly attached to, and captivated by the glare of splendor and
show. But I believe superficial minds are not confined to sex. Whatever
form they actuate, to beautify and adorn it will be the principal
object.
“A certain species of gaiety and airiness is becoming in youth. Young
ladies, therefore, act perfectly in character, when, under proper
restraint, they indulge their taste in the decoration of their persons.
But they should be especially careful that their taste be correct;
consistent with the modest delicacy which is the glory and ornament of
woman.
“It is laudable to follow fashions, so far as they are governed by these
rules; but whenever they deviate, quit them with express disapprobation
and disgust. Any assumptions of the masculine habit are unbecoming.
Dress and manners should be correspondent; and the engaging softness and
artless simplicity, which grace my pupils, must be quite inconsistent
with the air and attire of the other sex.