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Moreover, you labor under a great mistake if you think that
gaudiness in dress is necessary to render you attractive and inspire
those sentiments of esteem and affection which sometimes prepare the
way to an advantageous alliance. Should you succeed by this means in
securing such a marriage, be assured that you deceive yourself; for
the man who, setting aside the qualities essential to woman, lets his
affections be won by her outward charms only does her an injury, and
prepares for her, as well as for himself, bitter regrets in the
future. If you fully understand your true interest, both in this life
and in the next, far from making your dress a means of attraction,
you would tremble to owe to such vile contrivances the affection
bestowed on you. You would not compel by your vanity those who love
you for your own good to pander to your self-love and encourage your
negligence.
The sentiments that a woman awakens in the hearts of her admirers
draw their worth from the motives that inspire them, and this being
the case, what value shall you set upon affections determined by
empty show, and flattered by qualities purely exterior, unworthy of
the attention of an intelligent being? Still, for some unaccountable
or visionary reason, the greater part of women attach excessive
importance to such puerile advantages, and neglect those that are
capable of making a deep and lasting impression upon valiant and
noble souls.
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