The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

HINTS TO THE LADIES.

AMONG the handsome girls of the present age, it is a general complaint that they have many admirers but few lovers: They don't joke when they avow it is a truth not to be trifled with; they feel the mortification, and wonder at it; they would not, if they thought; but thinking is rather out of their way.

"Ah! (said a venerable virgin, lamenting the degeneracy of the present age) courting is nothing to what it was when I was young! The flirts now-a-days make the fellows so saucy, that there is hardly to be found a respectful lover."

The observation was just. The women of the last age were more respected, because they were more reserved. For want of a proper reserve, they are treated with an indifference which is very nearly allied to contempt. They make themselves too cheap to keep up their Consequence, without which they can never be respectable. To speak philosophically, a woman must respect before she can attract.

All this advice may sound oddly perhaps to a female ear; but he who laughs at it, pays no compliment to her understanding.

Ovid, who knew human nature tolerably well, discovered not a little penetration when he made Daphne fly so fast from her laurel'd lover, for his passion was increased by the pursuit.

Our modern Daphnes are quite other sort of people: Instead of flying from, they run into the arms of their Apollos, and are afterwards surprised that they grow cool to their charms.

Lovers are like sportsmen, to whom the possession of the game is nothing to the pleasure of the chase.

If women would study less to please, they would give more pleasure. This is a paradox, which those from whom I throw out these reflections, cannot comprehend, and till they can, they will never make their fortunes by their faces. The roses of youth are not long in bloom, and when time has torn them away, there's an end to love at first sight; and on that, they seem, by their manner of setting themselves off, chiefly to depend.

The modern fine ladies carry their heads well, I must own, and have fine sweeping tails: but when a man looks out for a wife, he expects to meet with something else besides the accomplishment of a mare.

To be stared at a few seasons, and neglected, and in a few more to sink into oblivion, is the lot of a thousand showy Girls, who have nothing but fronts and a little shabby genteel finery, to recommend them. Without prudence and discretion, even the most substantial ornaments, tho' they excite admiration will never procure esteem. Prudence is superior to pearls, and there is no kind of comparison between diamonds and discretion. Fools may be caught by the shell, but a man worth having will make the gem the object of his attention.

A satirical friend of mine t'other day, repeated an extempore epigram, which has some truth, but more severity in it:

The Girls of this age are so dazzled with show,
When they're scheming to settle in marriage:
That to church with the devil they gladly would go
If the devil would give them a carriage.

I corrected him with a pun, because I know he hates it. "You are wrong said I, to blame them for thinking of their carriage, for that is the last thing which strikes them."

It checked him, and he was silent. Without jesting, however, I must confess, that when I see a blooming young creature give her hand to "Deformed, debauched, diseased three-score," for the sake of a good settlement, I do not think my friend's satire much too strong; for as a woman, in that case, to be influenced by the most sordid motives, she certainly deserves the severest reproof.

HARRY HEARTFREE.