along in the full tide of a wretched and despicable fashion, till your end is destruction—I mean, morally so.

Do not be afraid of being laughed at. Mrs. L., an individual with whom I was formerly acquainted, was bred to be artless and sincere. She was just what she seemed to be. When she said a thing, you would know she spoke her heart. It would not require to be, like a foreign language, translated. If she approved of this or that statement, or of this or that course of conduct, you would know she did in sincerity. If she disapproved, you would know she was still equally artless and sincere.

True, she did not pass her judgment on everything said and done around her in the world. She knew that it was very difficult to know all the various motives by which mankind are actuated and governed, or to understand all the circumstances of an action, after it is brought forth. She was therefore slow to decide on merit or demerit. But whenever she felt herself really called upon to speak or give an opinion, she gave it in sincerity. She meant exactly what she said. True, she was modest in her remarks; and when forced to dissent from the opinion of those around her, or to say that which she thought would be likely to give pain, she did it in the kindest possible manner.

And what was the result of this simplicity? Did it secure the confidence and friendship of those around her? Or did it excite their ridicule, or awaken their displeasure?

I am glad to have it in my power to state, that it not only secured the friendship of most of those who knew her, but it always enabled her to retain the friends she had once acquired. Especially did it secure the full confidence of her husband. He knew exactly where to find her; he knew, therefore, how to prize her.

A few indeed laughed, and called her silly. But who were they? The butterflies that, though they appear so gay and promising in the morning, have half flitted out their days at noon? The busy, heartless throng, that meet to say-" How do you do?" and "How glad I am to see you!" and "How I hoped to have seen you long since, at my room!" and "You must call as soon as possible, or I shall never forgive you ;" and yet care not one straw about you, after all these pretensions? Yes, these were the persons who laughed. The sober, sensible part of the community have something else to do besides laughing at good sense. They rejoice at it as a pearl of great price, wherever they find it.

But duplicity of CONDUCT, however common among us, is equally despicable with duplicity of

language. Indeed, they commonly exist together, like twin sisters; and are not more easily separated. Avoid both as you would the breath of the pestilence. Cultivate simplicity, in the fear of the Lord, with all the earnestness required by an apostle of old, in his letters to Timothy. In short, if you would go through the world happily, and reach the bar of an approving God, strive with all your power, not only to be what you ought to be, but to be what you seem to be.

CHAPTER XIV.

NEATNESS.

Great importance of neatness. Want of it. Effects on the husband. Neatness in small matters. Structure of the skin. Necessity of bathing. Effect of neatness on morals. Effect of example. Difficulties considered. How to train a husband to slovenliness. Want of neatness in little things.

NEXT to purity of character, one of the most important duties of the young wife is, personal neatness. It is, indeed, a duty to herself, independently of her husband, since it has much to do with her own physical comfort, health and happiness.

The eccentric Cobbett has inveighed loudly against a want of personal neatness in the female sex. I will not here imitate him; but if the heat of his temper had never led him to express himself, not only forcibly but vulgarly on any other topic than this, he might well be pardoned. For next to impurity, I say again, few things are more repre-— hensible in a female than slovenliness.

I know well that some husbands appear to retain their first affection for their wives, even after

But because

they find them wanting in neatness. such things sometimes happen, will you run the risk? A husband may consider that the fault is in part his own. In other words, he may consider, when he finds you deficient in neatness, that he ought to have known it earlier; and that since he did not, it would be wrong in him to let this circumstance prove a source of matrimonial misery. He may therefore be silent about what he would gladly prevent; since silence is, in such a case, the only course of wisdom. But it is not possible, in such a case, for the affection of a husband to increase, or even to continue and she is unwise who calculates upon it.

What has been said thus far, on the subject of neatness, is intended to apply to those points of human conduct which come under general observation. But there are a great many things that escape the public eye, which must not be overlooked, and which, with a person as nearly related as the husband is to the wife, cannot fail to have an influence.

The world around you can indeed discover an uncleanly face or hand, as well as your husband. But the world do not always discover so readily an uncleanly skin in general. And yet there are not a few who pride themselves on the neatness of the tips of their fingers and the most prominent parts