pent among
females. These associations will have influence upon us. Either they
are perpetually improving our character, or, on the other hand, by
increasing our disregard or disgust, debasing it. Is it not wisdom,
then, to make what we can of the advantages and opportunities which
their society affords us?

The very presence of a respectable female will often restrain those
from evil whose hearts are full of it. It is not easy to talk or to
look obscenely, or even to behave with rudeness and ill manners under
such restraint. Who has not seen the jarring and discordant tones of a
company of rude men and boys hushed at once by the sudden arrival of a
lady of dignified manners and appearance?

The frequent, the habitual society of one whom a youth respects, must
have a happy tendency to make him love honorable conduct; and restrain
his less honorable feelings. Frequent restraint tends to give the
actual mastery; therefore every approach towards this must be of great
value. There is a delicacy, too, in female society, which serves well
to check the boisterous, to tame the brutal, and to embolden the timid.
Whatever be the innate character of a youth, it may be polished, and
exalted, by their approbation. He must be unusually hardened that can
come from some shameful excess, or in a state of inebriety, into the
company of the ladies.

Sometimes a diffident youth has been taken under the _protection_, if
it may be so called, of a considerate and respectable woman. A woman of
proper dignity of manners and character, especially with a few years'
advantage, can do this without the least injury to herself, and without
stepping a hair's breadth beyond the bounds which should surround her
sex. Happy is the young man who enjoys a fostering care so important;
he may learn the value of the sex; learn to discriminate among them, to
esteem many of them, and prize their approbation; and in time, deserve
it. It is obvious that the favor of silly, flirting girls, (and there
are some such) is not what I am here recommending.

Where the character of such society is pure, where good sense,
cultivation, intellect, modesty, and superior age, distinguish the
parties, it is no small honor to a young man to enjoy it. Should he be
conscious that epithets of a different and of a contrary quality belong
to them, it is no honor to him to be their favorite. He must be _like_
them, in some degree, or they would not approve him.

SECTION II. _Ad