Letters on the Improvement of the Mind: Addressed to a Lady

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J. Walker, 1810 - Conduct of life - 170 pages

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Page 163 - I know nothing that renders a woman more despicable than her thinking it essential to happiness to be married ! Besides the gross indelicacy of the sentiment, it is a false one, as thousands of women have experienced.
Page 22 - Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them ; for this is the law and the prophets.
Page 53 - Though thou drawest a sword at a friend, yet despair not, for there may be a returning to favour; if thou hast opened thy mouth against thy friend, fear not, for there may be a reconciliation ; except for upbraiding, or pride, or disclosing of secrets, or a treacherous wound ; for, for these things every friend will depart.
Page 54 - Whoso discovereth secrets, loseth his credit, and shall never find a friend to his mind. Love thy friend, and be faithful unto him; but if thou betrayest his secrets, follow no more after him: for as a man hath destroyed his enemy, so hast thou lost the love of thy friend; as one that letteth a bird go out of his hand, so hast thou let thy friend go, and...
Page 150 - I would have you to dance with spirit ; but never allow yourselves to be so far transported with mirth, as to forget the delicacy of your sex.— Many a girl, dancing in the gaiety and innocence of her heart, is thought to discover a spirit she little dreams of.
Page 73 - which has the promise of this life as well as of that which is to come.
Page 54 - ... not get him again. Follow after him no more, for he is too far off ; he is as a roe escaped out of the snare. As for a wound, it may be bound up, and after reviling there may be reconciliation ; but he that bewrayeth secrets, is without hope.
Page 94 - As to the learned languages, though I respect the abilities and application of those ladies who have attained them, and who make a modest and proper use of them, yet I would by no means advise you, or any other woman, who is not strongly impelled by a particular genius, to engage in such studies.
Page 90 - Young ladies, of nearly your own age, who visit there, fall of course to your share to entertain: but whilst you exert yourself to make their visit agreeable to them, you must not forget what is due to the elder part of the company, nor, by whispering and laughing apart, give them cause to suspect, what is too often true, that they themselves are the subjects of your mirth.
Page 163 - All this is owing to an exuberant activity of spirit, which, if it had found employment at home, would have rendered them respectable and useful members of society. I see other women, in the same situation, gentle, modest, blessed with sense, taste, delicacy, and every milder feminine virtue of the heart, but of weak spirits, bashful, and timid. I see such women sinking into obscurity and insignificance, and gradually losing every elegant accomplishment, for this evident reason, that they are not...

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