Page:A father's legacy to his daughters - Gregory - 1808.djvu/142

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
116
FRIENDSHIP, LOVE,

sition, with dignity and cheerfulness, from the period of youth, beauty, admiration, and respect, into the calm, silent, unnoticed retreat of declining years.

I see some unmarried women, of active, vigorous minds, and great vivacity of spirits, degrading themselves, sometimes by entering into a dissipated course of life, unsuitable to their years, and exposing themselves to the ridicule of girls, who might have been their grandchildren; sometimes by oppressing their acquaintances by impertinent intrusions into their private affairs; and some-