You will perhaps see one girl, with head tossed upon
one shoulder, and with a simpering countenance, trying to look pretty.
You speak to her. Instead of receiving a plain, kind, honest answer,
she replies with voice and language and attitude full of affectation.
She thinks she is exciting your admiration. But, on the contrary,
she is exciting disgust and loathing.
You see another girl, whose frank and open countenance proclaims a
sincere and honest heart. All her movements are natural. She manifests
no desire to attract attention. The idea of her own superiority seems
not to enter her mind. As, in the recess, she walks about the
schoolroom, you can detect no airs of self-conceit. She is pleasant
to all her associates. You ask her some question. She answers you
with modesty and unostentation. Now, this girl, without any effort to
attract admiration, is beloved and admired. Every one sees at once
that she is a girl of good sense. She knows too much to be vain. She
will never want for friends. This is the kind of character which
insures usefulness and happiness.
A little girl who had rich parents, and was handsome in personal
appearance, was very vain of her beauty and of her father's wealth.
She disgusted all her school-mates by her conceit. And though she
seemed to think that every one ought to admire her, she was beloved
by none. She at last left school, a vain, disgusting girl.
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