r form of the disposition in question, to be avoided by her who is
entering society, is Conversation for the sake of Effect. It is feared
by some that the simple truth, simply expressed, will fail to attract
and impress. Hence come departures into the boundless field of
imagination. Ridicule is employed to color, and give zest to, the
truth. Or Mirth suggests the addition of some new fact to a story, that
the laugh may be universal and loud. Exaggeration is employed. The plain
food of truth must be seasoned by here throwing in a circumstance, and
there suppressing one. An emphatic tone, a nod, or a gesture, intimate
far more than the lips dare express. A favorite phrase is continually
recurring, or a set of superlatives, shewing that nothing common occurs
in the sphere of this individual. Perhaps Irony is indulged, to such
unreasonable extent, that a stranger to our young lady's habits of
conversation, would be totally at a loss to judge when she was in
earnest, and when trifling with the truth.

Now all this "colloquial romancing," as one styled it, is a violation of
duty to God and our fellow creatures. It is a deviation from the truth
of God; it is unjust to those, of whom, and to whom, it is daily
addressed. She, who is soon to be exposed to this moral contagion,
should be kindly forewarned of its approach. Honor, affection, and her
personal good, through the range of her whole being, forbid her to yield
to the temptation.

In the world, a young woman is in danger of a love of Fame, as concerns
her Personal appearance, her style of Living, and especially the
Entertainments given, on her account, by her parents. It is right that
we love the approbation of the virtuous; nor may we violate good taste
for the sake of defying popular opinion. But she, who allows her desire
of human esteem to supplant the higher sentiments and principles of our
nature, clearly does wrong. And are there not those, who pine in secret,
because they receive less notice than their ambition craves? It is
nothing to such that hundreds are won, so long as a single heart refuses
them homage. What condition more truly deplorable than this insatiable
thirst for applause? We are told that Elizabeth of England, "who
referred everything to self, was even jealous of the beauty and the
dress of her maids of honor. When advanced in years, the sight of her
face in a mirror would throw her into transports of rage, and so
exasperated did she become, as fina