old maids are given
to credulity, and pours on them, for this reason, contempt and raillery.
They are accused of disgusting affectation, of pretending to youth, to
censorial importance, and to an exquisite sensibility. Finally, it is
said, that they are notorious for envy, and ill-nature, being
match-breakers, because themselves unmarried. Let these charges be
destitute as they may of foundation, they doubtless impel many females
to the determination that they must and will escape this terrific
condition.

But there is no portion of the community, whose opinion we should value,
that will esteem a female the less for being in that condition where
Providence has clearly placed her. It is not true that single ladies are
usually despised, or subject to ridicule. Those who do suffer these
things, have usually brought them upon themselves by a deportment, which
might have been shunned.

Some have been derided for their excessive Reservedness of manner, for
never permitting one of the opposite sex to address them, even
indirectly, or scarcely to exchange a word with them. What else can the
prude anticipate, or reasonably require, than that she be an object of
reproach, if not of ridicule, for obstinately adhering to a manner that
must result in her perpetual singleness of life? If she debar all access
to herself, except from her own sex, misinterpret every word and all
intimations of, and thus insulate herself from, any special acquaintance
with any gentleman, let her bear the consequences without a syllable of
discontent. A morbid sensitiveness, in reference to all such company,
must, in most cases, seal one's doom.

Perhaps a young maiden takes the opposite extreme. In her anxiety to
fulfil what she deems her only possible destiny, she becomes Forward and
assuming. She regards it as necessary to force attention toward herself.
She is not of those who "to be won, must be wooed." Her aims are
obtrusive; instead of waiting for the approach of another, she makes
constant advances toward him. This fault is still more repulsive to most
gentlemen than the other. They esteem it an indication of great vanity
on the part of a young woman, and expressive of no very high sense of
their own powers of discernment, or of their delicacy of feeling. Such
persons must expect little favor at the hands of the other sex, should
all their endeavors be frustrated. "She might have been married," is
their uniform language, "had she not exhibited