All can acquire these habits of politeness and attention to others,
though they come not with ease to those of us whom unfavorable
surroundings continually influence. A woman in an almshouse, a girl
serving a ship's crew, can be a lady and not cost her masters more,
though her efforts cost her much.
But, valuing all that constitutes a lady, believing that these gentle
graces are necessary to every girl, I believe the ladylike is but a
part of true womanliness,--that infinitely precious, indescribable
something in woman that makes her royal by birth, queen of herself,
and fit to occupy the throne that is placed beside the king's throne,--
not higher, not lower, but beside it; not his, but like his; her own,
from which, with equal though with differing eye, she looks in blessing
on the world.
Oh, how, girls, shall we get this womanliness into our characters,
or, rather, how shall we make it shine out of them? If we stop to think
once in a while what it is, if we remember that it is unassuming as
it is beautiful, and only waits for our acquaintance, we shall the
sooner embrace it. And then, if we are reminded that it does not despise
common things, lowly homes, simple pleasures, any more than it does
benevolent acts, patient lives, and ordinary toils, we shall oftener
be found cherishing it. Let us remember that womanliness is in our
elders,--women like Susan Winstanley, of whom "Elia" tells in "Modern
Gallantry.
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