We close this chapter with a passage from a good writer upon this subject: "The Christian gentleman and lady are such because they love their neighbor as themselves; and to be a thorough Christian without being a gentleman and lady is impossible. Wherever we find the rich without arrogance, and the poor without envy, the various members of society sustaining their mutual relations without suspicion or pretension; the family circle free from rivalry, fault-finding, or discord, we shall find nothing ungentle, for there the spirit of Christianity reigns. He who is pure in heart can never be vulgar in speech, and he who is meek and loving in spirit can never be rude in manners."

CHAPTER XIII.

VANITY.

VANITY INCOMPATIBLE WITH FOREGOING QUALITIES — GIRLS DISPOSED TO BE VAIN-THE WORLD A VANITY FAIR-ONE VAIN OF BEAUTY, ANOTHER OF DRESS, ETC. ANECDOTE BY HOWITT -VANITY CONSIDERED A SMALL FAULT-HOW PARENTS TEACH IT WHAT L'AIME MARTIN SAYS OF FRANCE TRUE OF AMERICA-LINES OF POLLOK-REMARKS OF DR. MAGOON - VANITY HINDERS SUCCESS BY DWARFING THE MIND AND CORRUPTING THE HEART-EXAMPLE OF MARY LYON-OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE-INCIDENT IN LIFE OF THE LATTER-THE SHAWL WORTH THREE THOUSAND GUINEAS- JOSEPHINE - CORNELIA, THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI-REMARKS OF ROLLIN-VANITY A WEAKNESS AND SIN.

VANITY is incompatible with that amiable, modest spirit, and that mental culture and polite bearing, of which we have spoken. There are several other evils, immediately connected with this, equally inconsistent with a happy development of female character, each of which will be considered in succeeding chapters. But vanity now claims our attention.

Women are inclined to be vain. This point is generally conceded. There is so much effort among them to make display, such servility to the demands

of fashion, such fondness for dress and ornaments, such extravagance in possessing the light adornings which the world affords, that they have been said to convert the world into a Vanity Fair. Nor is the allegation altogether unjust. We have only to walk through the principal streets of our cities, or attend a fashionable party or ball, or even go to the house of God on the Sabbath, for proof of this. Traders in fancy articles, milliners and mantuamakers, hotel proprietors and servants, and bankrupt husbands and fathers, could tell painful stories on this subject. It is the vanity of woman that causes much of the unbounded extravagance in our land. She has the power to check that costly display which everywhere meets the eye. If man participates in this show, he does it more to gratify woman than to please his own taste.

Vanity assumes a variety of forms, and is not always concerned with the same objects. One female is vain of her beauty; another of her apparel; a third of her delicate hand or foot; a fourth of her pearl white teeth; a fifth of her ornaments; a sixth of her wealth; a seventh of her splendid house and costly furniture, and thus through the various possessions of the world. There are some vain persons, however, whose vanity appears to centre upon no particular object, since they possess nothing that could possibly furnish the occasion of it. Gen

erally, vanity expends itself upon the most useless and unimportant things. Howitt, in his Rural Life in England, says, "I have heard of a gentleman of large fortune who, for some years after his residence in a particular neighborhood, did not set up his close carriage; but afterwards, feeling it more agreeable to do so, was astonished to find himself called upon by a host of carriage-keeping people, who did not seem previously aware of his existence; and, rightly deeming the calls to be made upon his carriage, rather than himself, sent round his empty carriage to deliver cards in return. It was a biting satire on a melancholy condition of society, the full force of which can only be perceived by such as have heard the continual exultations of those who have dined with such a great person on such a day, and the equally eager complaints of others, of the pride and exclusiveness they meet with; who have listened to the long catalogue of slights, dead cuts, and offences, and witnessed the perpetual heartburnings incident to such a state of things." So it is with some female society in our own land. There are vain women who condescend to take notice of another only because she had seen her carriage in the street, or her expensive apparel at church. The respect is paid to the style and trinkets, of course, and not to their possessor. Remove the former, and at once the vanity of the caller leads

her to "cut acquaintance," and look for other carriages and garments elsewhere to honor.

Some girls are educated in such a state of society; and we can scarcely wonder that vanity becomes their principal characteristic. They are never taught that it is an evil, or that it is inconsistent with the highest charms of girlhood. Perhaps, generally, vanity is regarded as a trivial fault, scarcely warranting much attention either way. On this account, parents, otherwise considerate, tell their children about their "beautiful appearance,” "pretty dresses," and "fine figure," thus schooling them in vanity, and training them up to value the dress more than the soul beneath it. What L'Aimé Martin says of France, is true of America: "The great care is to please the world, rather than to resist it; the wish is to shine-to reign; vanity, that is the end to which tender mothers do not cease to point their daughters, and upon which the world that pushes them on sees them wrecked with indifference. Vanity in accomplishments! vanity in dress! vanity in learning! This show covers all. To seem, not to be, makes the sum and substance of education."

It is a very humiliating picture of society to draw, but it is nevertheless true. Pollok describes many a vain girl in the lines: