After her toilet, her most serious occupations are the visits which
she pays and receives. A visit prompted by charity or some other
virtue is good, highly commendable and praiseworthy. I admire and
understand the woman who leaves the peaceful company of her family,
when no pressing need requires her presence, to go and visit the poor
and destitute, in order to sweeten their bitter lot by a word of
encouragement or a little alms. I understand and admire her who
readily sacrifices her legitimate joy in order to go and mingle her
tears with those of her friend and mitigate her sorrow or share it
with her. I understand and esteem the woman who, impressed by the
superior wisdom and exemplary piety of another woman, goes to her for
advice, devoting with pleasure her leisure hours to that end. I see
in all these circumstances a motive that is serious, honorable,
praiseworthy, and capable of acting upon a noble heart and an
elevated intelligence. But, among the visits made by worldly women;
how few there are that are prompted by such motives! The greater part
of those women visit with no other view than to pass the time, to
pander to their own vanity and curiosity, to form or execute some
intrigue.
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