24
lously prevented until the great physiological change from girl to woman has been accomplished. We are satisfied that it is less the polite arts themselves than the occasions to which they lead, which impart to them their dangerous character. Surely, that sublime language, "the concord of sweet sounds," which, we are taught, is the very highest form of adoration and love, to which even the hosts of Heaven are attuned, cannot be intended by our Creator to foster unchaste thoughts or desires, save, as in other things, by the unnatural perversion of His gifts. As for the perusal of romances, attendance on balls and theatres, the luxurious indolence of the drawing-room, the perusal of newspapers, they should be forbidden fruit to every young person. There are those who will read these pages who, with an inconsistent prudery—or hypocrisy (?)—impossible to believe, will deem our work imprudently plain, and yet who do not scruple to place in the hands of their daughters the journals of the day, albeit teeming with advertisements and "news items" of the most revolting and indecent character.
Young America in petticoats, as in trousers, manifests no intermediate stage of existence between childhood and adult age. If she do not marry from the school-room, she is at least "engaged." The exceptions are those who do not secure eligible "lovers," or those who are too unattractive to find any. An "engagement," in these modern times, is, however, rather a genteel method of legalizing improper relations with some favored one of the opposite sex, than a veritable betrothal. These singular liaisons often exist for a long time, and become patent to "all the world" before they are even suspected by the parents whose consent is regarded as a mere matter of form, and is sought, if matrimony be finally determined on (!) more for
