istic of a single woman. It may degenerate
to a fault, it is true; but in most of those in this condition it is so
restricted, as to be a theme not for censure, but approbation. In a
country like ours, where, if fortunes are often made, they are also not
seldom lost, in a day, this virtue is of prime concern. And everywhere
it is an incumbent duty of the Christian to "gather up the fragments,
that nothing be lost." She who does this may be a most valuable
auxiliary in the family she resides with.

Suppose one partly dependent, for her subsistence, on her manual
exertions, or an inmate in the house of a relative or friend, she may do
great good by an habitual watchfulness that nothing be wasted. Servants
are proverbially lavish and careless in this matter. The head of the
family may be deficient in economy, or what is by no means uncommon, so
engrossed with other inevitable cares, as to have little time to look
after the savings, which might daily be made. But here is an individual,
whose habits prompt her to the service, and who has leisure to make
herself useful in this manner.

Unmarried ladies are usually distinguished for their Neatness. We often
hear it said of another, "She is so afraid of a speck of dirt, that she
will certainly be an old maid." If this be the chief index of that
character, it is one which the married lady would do well to imitate,
rather than deride. The personal habits can be excusably neglected by no
one. If those, charged with the care of families, are so absorbed in
their employments, as to pay little attention to neatness in dress,
their condition is deplorable. She who has less to interfere with this
all-important quality, and who, therefore, gives much time to
cleanliness, order, and neatness, is to be envied, not censured. Should
she hereafter be placed in the situation of a wife and matron, her
partner will rejoice in those circumstances, which contributed to this
most valuable trait in her character.

Single women are sometimes more Useful than they would have been, if
married. Such cases are probably rare; yet the capacity of doing as much
good in that state as another, should reconcile one to what might,
otherwise, appear an evil. Who can estimate the amount of virtue and
piety, that might be traced to the writings of Hannah More? Had she been
married, the world might have lost the whole of these sixty years' toil
in the cause of humanity. How large is our debt to the accomplished