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OLD MAIDS. 



WELCOME? Most welcome! aye, welcome as spring flowers 

 and spring sunshine, for it glads one's heart and delights one's senses 

 to meet with this book. And, ye old maids, whether young or old, 

 ugly or handsome, rejoice with us, for your cause has been taken up 

 by a champion in every way worthy the noble task which he has 

 thus voluntarily imposed upon himself. But, to be serious, 



The condition of Old Maidism has, it matters not from what 

 causes, long been one of covert if not of open reproach. Society, 

 with that injustice which sometimes characterises its decisions, has 

 passed a sort of moral excommunication against the order ; and to be 

 an " Old Maid," and to be believed to be a creature full of vinegar 

 and vexation, have been synonymous. For our own parts, we have 

 long viewed this large division of the community with considerable 

 interest and the more so, because from the progress of luxurious 

 refinement, and in the constantly increasing pressure of artificial 

 wants, a large portion of the sex must be inevitably doomed to ce- 

 libacy. Viewing the order in this light, the writer who can succeed 

 in clothing single blessedness in an attractive and even charming 

 dress, who can find arguments to reconcile the sufferers to them- 

 selves, will do an immense service to the social happiness of his 

 kind ; for a saying more true to experience was never uttered than 



" They who are pleased themselves, must always please." 



If the delightful volume before us does not succeed in making Old 

 Maids pleased with themselves, their case is absolutely hopeless. 

 The grace of its diction, the beauty of its sentiments, the fund of its 

 rich and quiet humour, and, above all, the pure and delicate spirit 

 which pervades it, must carry conviction home to every heart capable 

 of appreciating all that is good, amiable, and generous in literature. 

 It seems as if the author had had before him visions of gentle love- 

 liness, and had fashioned them into models for things as they are ; 

 and yet such is the truth of delineation, the knowledge of human 

 character displayed, the vraisemblance of the sketches to real life, 

 that we are almost tempted to believe that they are portraits ; and, if 

 so, they are portraits touched with a master's hand and form beau- 

 tiful originals. 



Moreover this is a book which makes one in love with mankind, 

 and we are constantly tempted to exclaim, 



" How beauteous mankind is!" 



No slight recommendation in itself, nauseated as we so frequently are 

 by the darker shades and viler propensities of humanity being 

 brought glaringly before our eyes for no other purpose, as far as we 

 can discover, than to make us hate ourselves. 



* " Old Maids ; their Varieties, Characters and Conditions." One vol. SVQ. 

 Smith, Elder, and Co. London. 



