There is much ignorance, I am aware, among this sex, in reference to the conditions of health. Yet more are they who sin in this respect against light, than in the absence of it. Is it not known that the exposure of the feet to wet and cold, in shoes genteelly thin, may induce disease? Can it be, that the multitudes, who compress the lungs and chest into half the space designed for them by nature, and thus occasion diseases of the spine, if not even consumption, sin all in ignorance? A slender waist was not regarded in ancient Greece as an attribute of female beauty; in Paris it is now usually deemed a deformity. When will this perverse taste in America be corrected? Let gentlemen cease to praise such distortions of the frame, and let ladies exhibit the intelligence and regard to the laws of God, which will second and secure a reform. Who does not know that the Chinese barbarity of a pinched foot is contrary both to health and true taste? Why should we refuse instruction from the ancient models of beauty, on these points, more than on others? Is it not known that to pursue the dance in winter through the chills of midnight, and return to one's home, as the day dawns, in summer apparel, is treading that path which has led thousands to consumption? Yes, too often are these guilty practices indulged in merely from the bondage of fashion. Not only are parental voices unheeded, but personal convictions are silenced, rather than violate its Draco-like laws. There may be men who encourage woman in the culture of a false delicacy in reference to her health. There must be somewhere a power, before which these unhappy beings do homage. Else had we never witnessed that affected fastidiousness of appetite, and that affected sickliness, so fashionable in some circles. Let this sex, however, for the sake of self, and of posterity, of man and of God, rise above that wretched servitude, which calls for the sacrifice of sound constitutions, and sometimes even life itself, rather than permit the "tender and delicate woman to set the sole of her foot on the ground." Let physical vigor, attended by mental excellence and moral soundness, become a part of her noble adorning. No more may childhood and youth be the only seasons, in which public opinion shall tolerate those generous exercises in the free air, by which buoyancy and vigor may be prolonged even to old age.