than holidays used to be. The festivals are often Church festivals, school feasts, anniversaries, Christmas entertainments, &c.; but when they lead to semiflirtations with half the curates in the neighbourhood over croquet or acted charades, are they much better for being on a Saint's day?

The girls are growing up. They come out of the schoolroom with their compulsory work at an end, and no taste for continuing any. Standard books are so much furniture on the walls. Mudie's box must be got through—at least, all of it that is not dry; and who knows what is there? Father and mother never interfere, unless somebody warns them against a more than usually rabid bit of sensation, or rationalism, and then they find the girls have read it! There have been so many good novels that the old sense that it was not good style to read many has passed away, and the Library Company has lately had to complain that scarcely any other works obtain a fair circulation. The studies that the mothers enjoyed and looked on as achievements have been superficially crammed in the schoolroom, and excite no interest. The plants have been stuck in-not rooted. The accomplishments are-with some justice-regarded as waste of time where there is no talent for them, and, except music, are dropped. Music serves not only for the evening's amusement, but is valuable for choral societies, &c., and is perhaps the one thing most really learnt.

The mother suffered a good deal in her youth from old-world restrictions, that withheld her from doing good in her own way. She therefore gives freely in to the independence of her daughters, and lets them go about where they please, with no guard but their own discretion. They celebrate their freedom from the governess by talking slang, which they imagine to be witty and plain spoken. Enthusiasm is almost gone, partly because there is no depth of warmth to create a glow, partly because it is the fashion to be matter of fact, and the enthusiasm of their elders has rather bored them. The effervescence that remains as natural to youth takes the form of such shallow extravagances as the Garibaldi fever; or earns the stigma of the term 'gushing,' which is ready to sneer down any genuine romantic feeling. The young lady, instead of Miss Lily Black's laboured composition, would write something in this style upon the same scene:- - The lake was awfully jolly! What a stunning lark it would be to take a good header into it!' Quite as affected as Lily, and, to our minds, an uglier form of affectation!

The doctrines of religion have probably been taught far more minutely to these girls than they were to their grandmothers. They have been carefully prepared for Confirmation, and

usually live in very constant observance of all holy rites; but it may be much feared, with not so much reverence and preparation, or there would be less of flippant comparisons of differing churches in the same place. The same tone of mind. that used to criticize the sermons now discusses the music, the decorations, &c.; and we own that we think this irreverent habit of comparison is much fostered by the church newspaper fashion of describing the festival decorations of the London churches much as the Times describes the various pantomimes at the theatres. There has been a strong reaction from the Puritan habit of disconnecting religious observance from mirth and amusement; but have we not gone too far on the other side? Do we not bring Holy Sacraments in irreverent proximity with what, to some, is the most innocent mirth, but to others dissipation? Has not the tendency been to lower the sense of the tone befitting those who have just been in the very inmost shrine of the sanctuary?

Some girls thus live in the most constant resort to every office of the Church, and yet in all the dissipating amusements they can accomplish, and in habits of flirtation that seem now, to use a French term, affiché, when once they would have been so much reprobated that there are still some surviving specimens of womanhood who hesitate to utter so opprobrious a word. Others drop the daily services. It has ceased to be a victory over a family prejudice to attend them; perhaps the girls were tired of them when children; at any rate, they do not feel much good from them, or they find the world looking at them as a weak delusion of the clergy and their admirers, so they cease to resort to them. And we fear there are large numbers who-even if they do not read the most declared rationalistic works-at least relish the sneering observations of popular periodicals on those who defend the truth, and remain with a belief that it is narrow-minded to have strong opinions, and intellectual to have doubts, as well as glorious to express them. As to charities, they have seen their mother and aunts hard worked over the sober ordinary ones, towards schools, sick, &c. They have invented the convenient word 'goody, and despise them accordingly, though they are ready enough to undertake any kind of work the expedience of which, for quite young girls, is doubtful, and therefore involves a little struggle and excitement. And-but this is tender ground— we strongly suspect that details which come before them in their charities, of which their elders could scarcely bring themselves to speak without strong necessity, are by them freely uttered, on the principle of what is called calling 'a spade a spade.' The false refinement of old has resulted in something un

pleasantly the reverse. We have spoken strongly, but we think our readers will agree with us, that parts of what we have said are more or less applicable to daughters of families of whom they had higher expectations.

Must we then see our maidens grow rougher and ruder, less reverent, less submissive, less possessed of the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit? We hope not. As a matter of history there have been oscillations of the pendulum of feminine refinement, since there is sure to be a recoil from the affectation that exaggerates it. The original Precieuses in France, the Lady Fanshawes and Mrs. Hutchinsons in England, were refined women, but the facilis decensus raised very different generations after them, which again became disgusted with themselves and rose gradually into the pure tone which we have ascribed to our grandmothers. By way of proof, Clarissa, though written for young ladies with the loftiest aim, and most noble and religious sentiments, is far coarser than Shakespeare, And one curious fact is, that in the two centuries that are near enough at hand to trace the connexion of literature and manners, the most romantic were the least coarse. Mademoiselle Scudery was the delight of the Hotel Rambouillet, and as our own womankind gradually rose from the slough, they followed the ascending scale of Mrs. Radcliffe, and Scott, till, from the almost too ethereal heights of La Motte Fouqué, they descended through the realistic to the slang and the sensational school. It seems as if, in addition to the higher safeguard of religion, the imaginative world was the best refuge from the sensual.

Some may perhaps ask: But is there any harm in it? Is the frank, outspoken, adventurous girl less safe than the tender, shrinking, reserved one? May she not safely be trusted to her own innocence and simplicity? We doubt whether reckless exposure be the way to maintain that self-guarded innocence, Nor indeed do we find any warrant, either in the Scripture or the records of the Church, for believing that the woman is most honoured or honourable who comes most forward, is least in subjection, and runs most into possible temptation, because she can take care of herself.

And alas! the records in our public papers from time to time bear in on us, that the crimes from which we once loved to believe our sheltered upper-middle class peculiarly exempt, are not confined to the 'gay, fashionable world,' in which good folks used to believe; but that an abyss of horror and disgrace has not unseldom opened before those who, even as ourselves, had lived in perfect security. Frivolity, excitement, and unrestraint are il preparations for temptations, and give principle an

infinitely harder battle to fight than if the outworks had not been left unguarded by reticence and 'shamefastness.'

What, then, is to be done? Our female authors recommend all they can devise, and very wisely; but we fully believe that the growing evil can far more efficiently be met by the fathers than by the mothers, aunts, or governesses; and we think that we are borne out in this by observing that, in general, all the offensiveness expressed by the word 'fastness' is more common among the daughters of widows than of widowers. The last, knowing that their daughters' training rests on them, give them the attention they require, while fatherless girls are only too apt to think their mother's wishes mere prejudices of a past generation, and so miss entirely the benefits of a man's opinion on their unrestraint. The same evil ensues in almost every family where the father's influence is not felt.

It is not time or personal teaching that we would entreat of them to give. These are good, but in many cases impossible. What is needed is, that men should not act as if their girls might indeed be a mother's responsibility, but only a father's recreation. When their children are young, it should be felt that the least shade of 'boldness' is one of the gravest offences that their father can notice. Let him play with them, win their confidence, set them at ease with him to the utmost, short of destroying the sacred awe that they ought to feel for him. It is no gain, but an irreparable loss, for a father to descend to be a mere playmate. The intimacy bred of taking liberties is a fatal exchange for the deep sense of trustful reverence. The present way of the world need not destroy this Divinely instituted honour. Each man may be his family's monarch if he chooses. And as the girls grow older, let him take such interest in their lessons as to make them feel that they are preparing to be his rational companions, perhaps his assistants; let him make such remarks as will guide them to perceive, at least, that the technicalities they learn are but the keys to knowledge to be pursued by and by; if possible, let him recreate himself by making known to them some favourite book, or some pursuit that he has enjoyed. When he has intellectual friends about him, let him allow his girls to listen to the conversation without expecting to be included in it, and let him afterwards perhaps pursue or explain some of the subjects. Let difficult questions be reserved for his solution, or at any rate, assistance; let him in effect be a pervading influence; and from first to last, let it be felt that whatever is unfeminine will meet with no such reprobation as from the father of the family; that in his own daughter's or other people's slang, levity, loudness, &c. are not jested at, but are condemned with silent disgust. Even if he does think his wife censorious on some pretty girl, let him not plead her cause

before his daughters. And let mothers have strength of mind enough to run the risk of hurting their friends by being very particular,' permitting no conscious infant flirtations, whether with small or great, and keeping a vigilant watch over the schoolroom library, trying in all things to raise and purify the standard in girls' minds, and to make the pursuits and duties of home their chief sphere of enjoyment. External calls will come fast enough; but assuredly the true Christian woman formed in the shade is fitter to answer the summons than the flighty girl, whose religious observances and secular diversions have formed one strange medley!

Miss Sewell's second volume contains much that is very valuable, on the best influences to bring to bear on grown-up girlhood in the present day. It is a book to be well read and thought over by all engaged in education, but we believe that the greatest work of all would be to teach self-restraint. There are naturally three large classes of girls-one formed by nature to be idealess beings, with no character at all,' either dressy, or full of censure of other people's finery, but, notwithstanding, capable of fulfilling in the tenderest manner all the duties of their nature, and often, in the eyes of angels as well as of many men, the brightest of all. Another class have such strong wills and intellects as to form themselves under any disadvantages whatsoever; but training is needful, or it will probably be an irregular, gnarled formation. The greater number partake of both the before-mentioned natures. Levity will teach them lightness, while good management will develop all their higher and better powers. The prevalent fashion of the world will lead them, but not half so much as the fashion around their own hearth.

And let us ask one grave question. The effort of the last five and twenty years has succeeded indeed in diffusing Church sentiment. Music, architecture, decoration, all the aesthetics of the Church are cultivated; but where are the asceticism and stern self-control that were once preached along with the rest? We have heard of hiding the sharp-edged cross in jewels.' Jewelled crosses are plenty; but where are their sharp edges? May not this practical rejection be the cause of our frequent disappointments?

Far be it from us to say that all is disappointment. Many a 'maiden of our own day' has gained by the training of her predecessors and the revived blessings of her own time. Many a one there is, who, shaded in her own home, has grown up refreshing the dew of her baptismal grace by constant resort to the ever open Church, who has lived in the recurring sorrows and joys of the Christian seasons, feeling, as each in its turn comes back to her, a deeper appreciation of its associations, and