The mail was to have closed to-morrow, but the Emeu has met with an accident which will delay it for another week, so that I hope to treat you to a long letter.  I was much disappointed at receiving nothing from you this month.  It would be a first-rate plan to do what a friend of mine was recommending to me only this evening, namely to commence an epistle at the beginning of each month, and add a little daily, adopting as your motto the Latin proverb, “Nulla dies sine linea,” which means, No day without a line.  You might at least favour me with a few monthly.  It would be as much for your own benefit as for my pleasure.  Pray don’t send a poor excuse again about waiting for an answer to a former letter.

I must now return to the subject of my last.  I hope you have carefully considered the remarks contained therein; and I wish to draw your attention to other matters not so immediately connected with religion, but which may seriously affect your prosperity and happiness in this world.  I fear that mamma is too much inclined to discourage your going into society.  If so, with all due deference to my dear mother’s experience and judgment, she has adopted a mistaken view.  You will perhaps say, you do not care for society.  So much the worse; that proves the evil of seclusion.  I had the same ideas once, and greatly to my disadvantage in a general sense, although in one point they may have been beneficial, by making me devote more time to my studies.  But I am doubtful even about that.  At any rate, girls are differently situated.  Having no need of deep scientific knowledge, their education is confined more to the ordinary things of the world, the study of the fine arts, and of the manners and dispositions of people.  It is often asserted that women are much sharper than men in estimating character.  Whether that be the case or not, is more than I can say, but I think it ought to be, because women have better opportunities and more leisure than we have for noticing little peculiarities and the natural expression of the features.  Now, my advice would be, to go as much as you can into quiet, good society, and moderately into gay; not to make it the business of life, as some do, who care for little beyond frivolous amusements, and that merely for the sake of killing time.  But go to these places, even if you do not like them, as a duty you owe to yourself and others, even as you used to go to school, when you would rather have remained at home.

You should cultivate, as much as possible, the acquaintance of ladies from other parts of the country, especially of those who have travelled much.  This is the best way of rubbing off provincialisms, etc.  Perhaps you think you have none; nevertheless I shall be prepared for some whenever I have the felicity of seeing you.  You cannot think how disagreeable the sound of the Devonshire drawl is to me now, and all people of the county that I meet have it more or less.  You will, no doubt, wonder how I have