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The Love of Excitement.

they would forcibly restrain her as she rashly presses on; while they contemplate the abyss into which she may be plunged with shuddering horror, she stands upon its brink in reckless exultation!

True, her delirious infatuation is sufficiently alarming; but why not seek a more attainable remedy than that of a miraculous metamorphosis of her whole nature, through menacing counsels and compulsive restrictions!

Her sensibilities are keen, do not strive to blunt them; if you succeed, you will only make her hard and dull, exchanging one evil for another. Rest is distasteful to her; do not force her into repose which produces lethargic stagnation. Monotony stupefies her; do not hope to train her rapid feet into the slow and even round of a humdrum existence. But turn the rushing, bubbling current of her thoughts and acts into a pure channel, where the stream may dance and sparkle still, yet minister to some use. Substitute for the alluring phantom which she now chases, some real and holy shape. Give the needful stimulus to her gasping energies through some engrossing occupation. Excite her interest in doing good—in communicating happiness—in promoting noble objects. If her heart be unvitiated, her very love for excitement may be made to lean to virtue's side—may become a powerful agent in achieving glorious ends.

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