ADVICE TO GIRLS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2011, 4 August 1880, Page 2

ADVICE TO GIRLS.

See that no day passes in which you do not make yourself a somewhat better creature ; and in order to do that find out, first, what you are now. Do not think vaguely about it; take pen and paper and write down as minute a description of yourself as you can, with the date to it. If you dare rot do so, find out why you dare not, and try to get strength of heart enough to look yourself fairly in the face, in mind as well as body. I do not doubt that the mind is a less pleasant thing to look at than the face, and for that very reason it needs more looking at ; so always have two mirrors on your toilet table, and see that with proper care you dress body and mind before them daily. . . . Write down, then, frankly, what you are, or, at least, what you think yourself, not dwell--1 ing upon those inevitable faults which I have just told you are of little consequence, and which the action of a right life will shake or smooth away ; but that you may determine to the best of your intelligence what you are good for and can be made into. Teach yourself—first—to read with attention and Lo remember with affection what deserves both, and nothing else. Never read borrowed books. To he without books of your own io the abyss of penmy. Don’t endure it. And when you’ve to buy them you’ll think whether they’re worth reading ; which you had better, on all accounts. A woman must he a pleasant creature. Be sure that people like the room better with you in it than out of it; and take all pains to get the power of sympathy and the habit of it. You fancy that you are sorry for the pain of others. Now I tell you just this: that if the usual course of war, instead of unroofing peasants’ houses and ravaging peasants’ fields, merely broke the china upon your own draw-ing-room tables, no war in civilised countries would last a week. Can you cook plain meats and dishes economically and savourily ? If not, make it your business to learn, as you find opportunity. When you can, advise and personally help any poor woman within your roach who will be glad of help in that matter, always avoiding impertinence or discourtesy of interference. Acquaint yourself with the poor, net os their patroness, bat as their frier d. If then you can modestly recommend a little more water in the pot, or half-an-haur’s more boiling, or a dainty bone they did not know of, you will have been useful indeed. Do not think you can make a girl lovely if you do not make her happy. It is not the object of education to turn a woman into a dictionary. Do you not feel that marriage—when it is mirriago at all —is only the seal which marks the vowed transition of temporary into untiring service, and of fitful into eternal love! G irls should be like daisies—nice and white, with an edge of red if you look close, making the ground bright wherever they are, knowing simply and quietly that they do it, and are meant to do it, and that it would be very wrong if they didn’t do it. John ErsKiK.