parents respect for their authority, compassion for their infirmities, attention to their wishes, solicitude to give them all necessary aid, and reverence and love undiminished by the decline of their faculties; and in the performance of those duties your credit and peace of mind are deeply interested. It is a delightful encomium, when heard from the lips of parents about children, "I cannot tell which of them is kindest to me.” Happy is that dwelling in which there is not one root of bitter ness among the olive-plants around the table, and where there are no children of whom parents can complain as having disappointed their hopes and broken their peace.

LESSON X.

On Female Education.

MRS. SANDFORD.

that it

WE are too apt to overlook the end of education,is the foundation of character, not the mere acquirement of knowledge, that is its legitimate purpose.

What a woman knows is comparatively of little importance to what a woman is. Let her mind be enlarged, and her information accurate; let her excel, if possible, in all that she does attempt, and we will find no fault with her, if her accomplishments be but few.

How delightful it is to meet with one whose mind is well stored with useful information; who is capable of appreciating intellectual beauty, and of deciding with discretion in the emergencies of life; and who is, withal, destitute of pretension! And, on the contrary, what a sad specimen of folly it is when a young woman is taught all conceivable accomplishments, the very number of which precludes the possibility of a proficiency in any! She has no taste, no love of knowledge, no real desire for improvement; her mind is a mere blank; she might

as well have been employed (like her grandmothers of old) in copying receipts in half text, or working Adam and Eve upon a sampler.

Lessons are considered the sum of education. But though it is certainly very well to have a memory for dates, and a rhyme for the signs of the zodiac, there is more to be learned in history than facts, and in science than terms. It is the use and application of knowledge that demand our chief attention.

Above all, what a mistake is this system with regard to religion! Even in serious families, there is often too much of dry routine in religious instruction. It is communicated

too much as a task, which is to be learned, repeated, and then thrown aside. Whereas the principle should pervade every thing. Religion should be the star to gild the young child's path, and to give zest even to her little pleasures. It should be the sunbeam to warm her tender heart, and cause it to expand towards its Creator. We may weary our children with religious instruction, but we shall never make them love religion in this way.

Youth is the season for fixing habits. We are very careful that our children should acquire no awkward tricks; that their manners should be well formed, and their movements gracefully regulated; but we are not always sufficiently careful as to the habitual tone and temper of their minds. To induce the love as well as the habit of occupation, to excite an interest at the same time that we accustom to study, should be our continual endeavor; and while we deprecate the charlatanism that would teach every thing by cards and counters, we should relieve, as much as possible, the irksomeness of the task. This can only be done by being ourselves in earnest. Nothing is so infectious as enthusiasm of all kinds, and especially to young people. Children naturally imbibe the feelings of their parents. The little girl who is brought up in the country, and who sees those around her interested in its occu

pations, dreams of snowdrops and primroses, and thinks no plaything so delightful as a spade and a garden. In like manner, if she is sure that her instructors themselves care for her progress, if she can believe that they sympathize with her, - she naturally shares in their ardor, and almost intuitively acquires whatever they may wish to teach.

Nor

We may learn this from our divine Instructor. He became man that he might teach men; and we must, in spirit, identify ourselves with our children, if we would gain their interest; we must condescend to their little emotions, sympathize in their simple impressions, recall our own young feelings, and live over again our early years, if we would mould them to our wishes, and make them regard us as their friends. does this require so much devotion as might be imagined. Some mothers err a little in this respect. One would scarcely find fault with a parent for giving up too much time to her children; yet children should not be the only objects of a mother's regard, and by her making them so, she may in some measure defeat her own wishes. The probability is, that she will render them selfish and dependent, and disqualify them for coping with those who have been nurtured with less tenderness. For, as the skilful gardener knows when it is better that Nature should do her own work, so does the judicious parent feel that children should sometimes be left to try their own strength, and should neither expect nor need assistance

It is the fault, not merely of indulgent, but of over-anxious parents, to treat their children too much as first objects. This is evident from their earlier years; and the little creatures are very quick at discerning their own importance. Their sayings are repeated, their talents lauded, their pleasures studied. They are suffered to interrupt and to interfere; and though we cannot, perhaps, say that they are rude, we must feel that they are very troublesome. And where this treatment is pursued in childhood, it is generally continued in youth. The young people are the perpetual theme; their success is blazoned as

if it were without precedent; and we are wearied with hearing of their prizes or their prospects. Yet all this has a very bad effect upon their future character; for they soon fancy themselves all that their partial friends imagine; and then they must either learn a bitter lesson from a harsh and censorious world, or prop themselves up in their own good opinion by an extra portion of conceit.

How many persons have cause to regret their own inconsistencies; the consequence, perhaps, of irritability contracted in childhood, which, in maturer years, it is very difficult to correct! How often have they to lament their own inertness, the natural effect of early indulgence, which wastes and deadens the intellectual faculties, and disqualifies them for future effort! And, though they may struggle against such evils, and by divine grace may be able to overcome them, they always find that bad habits are their worst enemies, and that it is much more easy to discern than to correct them.

Amiability, intelligence, and an absence of affectation, are the most delightful features in female character, and those which, next to religious principle, it is the business of education. to impart. And, if we would wish our children to be beloved as well as admired, and esteemed as well as loved, — if we would render them happy here, fortify them against the changes of life, and fit them for its close, we must endeavor to ingraft these qualities upon the solid basis of Christian truth.

LESSON XI.

On Female Acquirements. MRS. SANDFORD.

TIME is not unfrequently misspent in mere reading. The getting through a certain number of volumes is thought to be a meritorious exertion, and is looked back upon with compla.

cency; though perhaps all this painstaking labor has been without benefit, and has done nothing towards enriching or strengthening the mind. Some read without recollecting; many more without thinking; and many, again, without applying what they read to any moral or practical purpose. For, after all, literature is a mere step towards knowledge; and the error often lies in our identifying one with the other. Literature may, perhaps, make us vain; true knowledge must render us humble.

We are all apt to imagine that what costs us trouble must be of value; yet there is much need of discretion, both in the choice and manner of our acquirements. In both, utility should always be a question; utility as it affects the mind. History, for instance, with all its accompanying branches, is in this view a suitable and most improving study.

Not unfrequently, too, are we wrong in our estimate of acquirements. We value them by their rarity, and are apt to neglect what is essential, because it is easy, for the sake of what is difficult, because it is uncommon.

It is very important, not only that the mind should be well informed, but that there should be a taste for knowledge; which should be appreciated for its own sake, not merely as a means of distinction.

Slovenly attire, an ill-conducted household, and an illarranged table, are, in the minds of many, associated with female acquirement. If the woman of intellectual cultivation bears with equanimity petty vexations; if she lends a reluctant ear to family tales; if she is not always expatiating on her economy, nor entertaining others by a discussion of domestic annoyances, she is not the less capable of controlling her household, or of maintaining order in its several departments. Rather will she occupy her station with more dignity, and fulfil its duties with greater ease.

At the same time she should ever bear in mind, that knowledge is not to elevate her above her station, or to excuse her