their companion, and it is greatly in her power to impress their young minds with veneration for the example and opinions of their father: if, unhappily, they be not such as to deserve it, she can counteract the effects of them. A man may be too indolent, or too fond of his pleasures to be himself a good guide for his children, and yet, if he have any affection or principle, he will not counteract what their mother instils, and what he knows to be right: on the contrary, he will probably use his authority to strengthen hers, and she can confirm her children's respect for him, by making her precepts appear to flow equally from him.

But a frivolous woman, without doing designedly wrong, brings up her children in an enfeebling atmosphere; she clothes frivolity with grace, and inspires a sympathetic interest in the trifles that are always her pursuit. She has no conception that idleness is objectionable, unless the lessons be neglected for it; and her only idea of bad reading is, such as inculcates deliberate vice; consequently, a torrent of feeble trash is always at hand to enervate the powers imperfectly matured by school exercises. If the father remonstrate, this may be restrained for awhile, but his principle is not understood; there is ever something at hand to plead for, as an exception to a rule that seems rigid: "This, I am sure, is quite innocent; I dare say your papa will let you read this." It is not easy to explain to a person whose mind is trifling, the consequences of the overindulgence in passive impressions, produced by light reading, or to make them understand the different

effect produced by the highest order of works of imagination, and the trivial compositions which inundate the press, with no merit but some commonplace moral. Both are classed together as works of amusement; but the first enrich the mind with great and beautiful ideas, and provided they be not indulged in to an extravagant excess, refine the feelings to generosity and tenderness. They counteract the sordid, or the petty turn, which we are liable to contract from being wholly immersed in mere worldly business, or given up to the follies of the great world; in either case, confined too much to intercourse with barren hearts and narrow minds. It is of great use to the "dull, sullen prisoner in the body's cage" sometimes "to peep out," and be made to feel that it has aspirations for somewhat more excellent than it has ever known; and that its own ideas can stretch forth into a grandeur, beyond what this real existence provides for it. It is good for us to feel that the vices into which we are beguiled are hateful to our own minds in contemplation, and that it is our unconquerable nature to love and adore that virtue we do not, or cannot attain to. These are the effects of fine poetry and eloquence; but the greater number of common works of fiction, do nothing but deprave the taste and mislead the judgment: they leave no lasting traces of beauty or greatness in the mind: they are full of false sentiments, and create a vivid interest even about those follies which they affect to condemn they are addressed to passions which it is dangerous to stimulate, and just enough resembling

reality to create false notions of human life, and misdirect our efforts. Trifling books of other descriptions are injurious, principally from their feebleness and bad taste, but they also abound with false opinions and crude judgments.

Even when the novels, tales, poems, albums, memoirs, and tours, are kept within moderate bounds by the authority of one parent, the spirit of them is kept alive in the conduct of life, by the frivolity of the other. It is not uncommon to find children very well managed in their early years, by women who have but little solidity of character in other respects upon this subject they have an earnest desire to do right. They have perhaps read some works upon education, or at least some of the excellent children's books now published, and which convey a great deal of useful practical knowledge to the teachers. The defect of the parent, however, cannot exist without doing mischief; for unconsciously she imparts, or at least indulges, an unreasonable attachment to trifles, which causes a false estimate of the requisites for happiness or the maintenance of station, and a false judgment of right and wrong on many points of great moment, to which the imaginary importance of some frivolous concern prevents a proper regard being paid.

Nothing of all this is detected during childhood: an observer is delighted, and justly, with the order and cheerfulness which prevail in the nursery and school-room, with the progress the children make, almost without compulsion, in their lessons, and with the useful tastes given to them in the way

of amusement; but a woman, whose judgment is weak, and who is not capable of taking an enlarged view of the duties of life, can neither give strength and elevation to the principles of her children; nor, while they are obedient and tolerably well tempered, can she detect the germs of qualities, which break out afterwards into egregious defects. Selfishness, vanity, prejudice, and weakness form themselves into innumerable compounds, and at their entrance into life, the seemingly well-brought up children exhibit vices and follies, which we think the commonest care might have controlled.

SECTION II.

Influence of Frivolity on Public Life.

Between the frivolity of men and women there are these differences: the frivolity and ignorance of men individually often do mischief upon a large scale, as they spread their consequences over life, liberty, and property: those of women are individually more confined to a home circle; they act in detail. A few silly women, however high in station, might do no great harm, except in their own families. A few frivolous, ignorant men, in a certain station, might get into power and do more mischief in a year than many wise men could repair in twenty. The amusements of a man are more expensive and more akin to passions than those of women: he is more solemn about them. His field-sports, his races, his cards, his equipage are put on a level with

the most serious concerns of life. If treated of as what they are, luxuries or agreeable amusements, and therefore very good things while kept in their place, (which is one wholly subordinate to greater interests,) he draws up with an air of suppressed scorn for the person who can take so absurd a view. The history of the game-laws is a terrible proof of the excesses to which men will go in pursuit of their amusements. Women have not power enough to make their amusements matters of grave legislation, but they keep up that spirit of frivolity which in the other sex produces disastrous consequences.

There are few maxims that less bear examination, than that women should take no interest in politics. They are as amenable to the law as men; they are affected by taxes like them; the effects of misgovernment fall on them as on others, for they do not remain at ease and in affluence while the property of their husbands and fathers is invaded, their industry impeded, or life made insecure by injustice or impolicy. "It is very natural, if we are to lose our heads to ask why," replied Madame de Staël, when Napoleon addressed her abruptly, to say he "hated women who meddled in politics." So long as they are liable to lose either their heads or their property, by acts of the government, it is probable that, whether it be right or wrong, they will continue to take an interest in public measures. It is therefore desirable they should have sufficient instruction to do so with discretion.

There is an easy way of obtaining a foolish verdict: it is to introduce some epithet or phrase that