162 PLAIN FACTS FOE OLD AND YOUNG 



ment to gain the ascendency. Wlien reason is once 

 stifled, the individual is in a most precarious situation. 

 It is far better and easier to prevent the danger than 

 to escape from it. 



Flirtation.— We cannot find language sufficiently 

 emphatic to express proper condemnation of one of 

 the most popular forms of amusement indulged in at 

 the present day in this country, under the guise of inno- 

 cent association of the sexes. By the majority of peo- 

 ple, flirtation is looked upon as harmless, some even 

 considering it useful, claiming that the experience 

 gained by such associations is valuable to young per- 

 sons, by making them familiar with the customs of 

 society and the ways of the world. We have not the 

 slightest hesitation in pronouncing flirtation pernicious 

 in the extreme. It exerts a malign influence alike upon 

 the mental, the moral, and the physical constitution of 

 those who indulge it. The young lady who has become 

 infatuated with a passion for flirting, courting the 

 society of young men simply for the pleasure derived 

 from their attentions, is educating herself in a school 

 which will totally unfit her for the enjoyment of domes- 

 tic peace and happiness should she have all the condi- 

 tions necessary for such enjoyment other than those 

 which she herself must furnish. More than this, she 

 is very likely laying the foundation for lifelong disease 

 by the dissipation, late hours, late suppers, evening 

 exposures, fashionable dressing, etc., the almost cer- 

 tain accompaniments of the vice we are considering. 

 She is surely sacrificing a life of real, true happiness 

 for the transient fascinations of unreal enjojanent, per- 

 nicious excitement. 



It may be true, and undoubtedly is the case, that by 

 far the greater share of the guilt of flirtation lies at 



