The New Hampshire Gazette

To the Printer.

Be so good as to insert the inclosed Lines in your next, Which will oblige your Friend and Customer.

New Hampshire. Feb. 17th. 1761.

Advice to a young unmarried Lady, From one of her own Sex.

Miss,

The Charms with which Heaven has blessed you, while they delight the Eye, make me tremble for you hereafter. Beauty has often been the Rock on which Virtue has split, when Care has not been taken to enrich the Mind with Means to protect it in all the Changes of Life. A splendid Fortune is ever attended by Luxury, whose Companion is Coquetry. The Adoration of the Men, and their perpetual Flatteries to our Sex, are often too pleasing to our Vanity; and by listening to a Number, the Heart is uncertain in its Determination, and one insensibly gives up to a ****** that Reputation we fear to trust with one single Person, and which ought to be dearer to us than one's Life. Again, Poverty, and Misfortunes, and a Life imbittered by continual Vexations, are no less fatal to Virtue; such a Woman is apt to make Use of her Beauty to subdue her Enemies, and to procure her Friends in time of need: She meets, tis probable, with dangerous Temptations, and her Honour becomes a Sacrifice to Gratitude. To prevent these disastrous Accidents, Wisdom is the only Means; but endeavor to be wise without Affectation. Wisdom does not require so much outward Shew as inward Severity.

Be prudent without being a Prude: let your Modesty be accompanied with Gaiety, and your necessary Reserve with good Nature. Apply yourself to learn what will adorn your Mind, and be not vain in your own Conceit. Let your Philosophy be Christian. Be affable and obliging to all.