place, is an infraction of the golden rule. Nor can one of its believers be found, who would even think of taking his own daughter in such society; and who will not writhe at the knowledge of the fact that some one has played a Roland to his Oliver? Bring the thing home, and not one of them will acknowledge it right if his heart clings to those that constitute that home.
The material, nervous, cerebral, and organic exhaustion—the useless expenditure of life and vitality—are such, that not even an iron constitution could maintain its integrity for three consecutive years; or self-respect, or the real esteem of others for half that period of time.
Especially is this true among women, for no sooner is one of them even charged or suspected of what the term implies than her happiness is ended in that circle, for every female, save only her mother, will begin a war, cruel, cutting, endless, and terrible, against her. It takes woman to abuse woman. For spite, slander, vituperation, and the other little kindred and penetrating items the female sex has a power beside which the male sex can never hope for distinction. "Woman is eminently eminent on her tongue . . . Weaknesses vary, also their locality. Some have them in the head, some in the heart, others in the stomach, and still others in the legs. The latter pertain to such as have something inwardly which has a strong determination to show itself outwardly. A weakness in the head makes a goose; one in the heart a cipher; one in the stomach a glutton and a dyspeptic. All weaknesses are so much genuine stock abstracted from a good and perfect man or woman,—if there is ever anything of the latter sort. The best method of treatment of a weakness is with a strong hand; like a consuming conflagration, you are to put it out.
Mankind, like notes, are to be taken at a liberal discount. Few people come up to their self-asserted value. Women put their best side forward, and are thus confessedly one-sided; men put on a face which is too often a mask. Not one in a thousand is really up to what he, she, or it would like to be gauged at. Life is a sort of game, in which the best-looking cards are played first, and the paltry nothings reserved until necessity compels us to show our hands; and too often they are found to be not over-clean.
The love of home and country is a good thing. People who
