performs a very important part in the economy of humanity, and wives
who are forgetful of this fact commit a serious mistake.

You know full well that most young men--and most young women, too--are
desirous of marrying and having a family; but they do not sufficiently
consider that it is God who gives them this desire, and that for the
wisest of purposes; not only that this world may be peopled, but also
that its inhabitants may be prepared for heaven.

Nothing is more certain than that

MARRIAGE AFFORDS

the fairest opportunities for preparing for a better world. In it we
have others dearer than ourselves to think about and provide for; and
in doing so, we have often to practice that very useful virtue,
self-denial. Let me here impress upon you most deeply, that it is only
by making others happy that we can become happy ourselves. The angels,
we may be assured, are happy, because they are always actively good;
and for a similar reason it is that God himself is infinitely happy.
If you try to secure you own happiness by any other means than a
faithful discharge of your duty to God and your neighbor, you will
certainly fail.

I dare say you will find that

YOUNG MEN ARE FOND OF YOUR COMPANY,

and of paying you every polite attention, and you, as a right-minded
woman, are well pleased to be so treated. It is due to you _as a
woman_. Now, each of them is, or ought to be, looking out for a wife,
and it is well that you should know this. It is, too, more important
than you perhaps are aware, that you should be carefully making your
own observations, so that when the time arrives for one of them to ask
you to become his wife you may not be taken by surprise, but may know
how to act on the occasion.

Let me caution you here against a failing that is common among young
women. I mean that of making themselves too cheap. They feel flattered
by the attentions paid to them, and are not sufficiently aware that
many young men are fond of indulging in flattery; and such, if they
find a young woman weak enough to be pleased with it, will perhaps
play upon her feelings and gain her affections without having any
honorable intentions towards her.

As a protection against such, I recommend you to have a proper respect
for yourself, and to consider with what object or purpose you receive
their attentions. If you respond without an object, you may be doing
them wrong; if you accep