It will perhaps seem strange to you to be warned in the bloom of
youth against a sentiment that seems to be reserved for that period
of life when delinquents, through the infinite goodness of God, are
brought to enter into themselves; when the illusions of the heart
have been replaced by a cold and sad reality; when hope seems to
recoil under the weight of sad recollections. Still, because this
mental canker preys on the most vital interests of the soul, and
because a predisposition to it is found to prevail even among the
youthful portion of your sex, a certain knowledge of it is necessary
in order to resist it effectually.
It is most delightful and consoling to find in persons of your age
and sex that pure joy, so frank and candid, springing out of the
innocence and simplicity of the heart; a good conscience and a lively
faith, with unbounded confidence in Divine Providence; all of which
combine to produce that sweet and saintly cheerfulness which dilates
the heart and lights up the soul with its amiable reflections. But,
alas! we confess with deep regret, that many young ladies have been
ruthlessly robbed of all those charms by a precocious development
received under the world's tutorship, by which they have been made to
cross with a bound the smiling season of hope and joy, to a premature
old age before having tasted the charms of youth.
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