throughout eternity; for even if by the grace of God they are finally subdued, they will still remain with you in the memory of the painful conflicts, the severe discipline of inward and outward trials, required for their subjugation.  Do not, however, suppose that I mean to attribute exclusive or universally injurious effects to the atmosphere of a ball-room.  In the innocent smiles and unclouded brow of many a fair girl, the experienced eye truly reads their freedom from any taint of envy, malice, or coquetry; while, on the other hand, unmistakeable and unconcealed exhibitions of all these evil feelings may often be witnessed at a so-called “religious party.”

This remark, however, is not to my purpose; it is only made par parenthese, to obviate any pretence for mistaking my meaning, and for supposing that I attribute positive sin to that which I only object to as the possible, or rather the probable occasion of sin.  I always think this latter distinction a very important one to attend to in discussing, in a more general point of view, the subject of amusements of every kind:  it is, however, enough merely to notice it here, while we pass on to the question which I urge upon you to apply personally to yourself, namely, whether the ball-room be not a more favourable atmosphere for the first excitement and after-cultivation of many feminine failings than the quieter and more confined scenes of other social intercourse.

It is by tracing the effect produced on our own mind that we can alone form a safe estimate of the expediency of doubtful occupations.  This is the primary point of view in which to consider the subject, though by no means the only one; for every Christian ought to exhibit a readiness in his own small sphere to emulate the unselfishness of the great apostle:  “If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend."[89] The fear of the awful threatenings against those who “offend,” i.e. lead into sin, any of “God’s little ones,"[90] should combine with love for those for whom the Saviour died, to induce us freely to sacrifice things which would be personally harmless, on the ground of their being injurious to others.

This part of the subject is, however, of less importance for our present consideration, as from your youth and inexperience your example cannot yet exercise much influence on those around you.

Let us therefore return to the more personal part of the subject, namely, the effect produced on your own mind.  I have spoken of feminine “failings:”  I should, however, be inclined to apply a stronger term to the first that I am about to notice—­the love of admiration, considering how closely it must ever be connected with the fatal vice of envy.  She who has an earnest craving for general admiration for herself, is exposed to a strong temptation to regret the bestowal of any admiration on another.  She has an instinctive exactness in her account of