Page:Letters to Mothers (1839).djvu/262

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Another mother, wished to make a family of beautiful daughters happy. She encouraged the gay amusements in which youth delights. Expensive dresses, and rich jewelry were found necessary. She could not bear to see her daughters outshone, and mortified. She taxed the purse of her husband, beyond its capacity, and contrary to his judgment. Her principal argument was, "I know, you love to see our young people happy." Her theory of happiness, ended in a spirit of display, a necessity of excitement, a habit of competition, a ruinous extravagance.

If we would advance the true felicity of others, we must not only know in what it consists, but