and finery, and to negligence and vulgar coarseness.  The exercise of a refined taste, in the adaptation and adjustment of apparel, may also be justified by the analogy of nature.  Look abroad over the landscape, and see with what exquisite taste God has clothed the flowers of the field.  There is a symmetry of proportion, a skilfulness of arrangement, and a fitness and adaptation of colors, which strike the eye with unmingled pleasure.  And if God has shown a scrupulous regard to the pleasure of the eye, we may do the same.  This opinion is also confirmed by the practical influence of the gospel.  This is particularly observable among the poor in our own land.  Just in proportion as the religion of Jesus prevails among this class of people, you will see a scrupulous attention to personal appearance.  By this, I do not mean the pride of appearance; but a decency, modesty, and propriety, opposed to negligence, coarseness, and vulgarity.  But this is more strikingly manifest among those people who have been but recently raised, by the influence of the gospel, from the lowest depths of heathenism.  Of this, you will be convinced by examining the history of the missions among the North American Indians, and the South Sea Islands.  The same principles will also apply to equipage and household arrangements.  Such regard to comfort and decency of appearance as will strike the eye with pleasure, and shed around an air of cheerfulness, doubtless contributes to moral improvement, and is not only authorized, but required, by the spirit of the gospel.

But this is a dangerous point.  There is such a tendency in the human mind to mistake gayety and extravagance for neatness and propriety; and so much temptation to the indulgence of pride and vanity, that you have need of constant watchfulness, that in no respect your heart may lead you astray in this matter.  You ought to make it a subject of daily prayer.

4. Have a regard to health. The duty of using all proper means for the preservation of health, I have already considered.  Among these means, attention to dress is not the least important.  Great care should always be taken that it be suited to the season, and a defence against the inclemency of the weather.  This is a Christian duty; and any pride of appearance, or carelessness of habit, which leads you to neglect it, is sin.  But, above all things, avoid the compression of any part of the body, for the purpose of improving the appearance.  This is a most pernicious practice.  It is astonishing that intelligent ladies can so blindly follow the mandates of fashion, as to indulge a habit so destructive of comfort and life.  There is no part of the system, not even the extremity of a limb, which can suffer violent compression, without interrupting the regular circulation of the blood.  But, when this pressure is about the chest, the effect is most destructive.  The lungs, subject as they are to alternate distension and compression, from