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joyful a thing it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity!" It is, therefore, one of the first duties of a mother, to endeavour, by exciting reciprocal affection in her family, to secure them mutual friends and assistants, even to that extended period of life, when, according to the course of nature, she can no longer hope to minister to their wants and sorrows. To promote this happy end, she will be extremely careful to convince them of the equality of her own affection to them all, dealing out her dole of kindness, not as personal beauty, lively parts, or ingenious talents shall dictate, but candidly and fairly, according to those estimable qualities of the head and the heart, which, being powerfully seconded by voluntary exertion, are therefore praiseworthy. But, in exercising this duty, affection must occasionally reject the guidance of tenderness, and call in the aid of authority.

The ultimate end of all the attention that is paid to children, is, to fit them for acting their part on the great theatre of the world with credit to themselves, and satisfaction to their fellows; to answer to the demands of every relation in which they may stand; to do the duties of a virtuous citizen; to sustain the honour of human nature. Without some pains to cultivate the minds of the young, to season them with the principles, and practise them in the habits of wisdom and sound morality, what is to be expected from them but ignorance and profligacy? which, though it may not immediately appear in the form of an unpolished barbarism, yet is capable of greater enormities, of a more unprincipled conduct; and, by dissolving all the bonds by which a well-civilized community is held together, ends at length in the very rudeness and barbarism of our savage ancestors, from which we think ourselves to be the best secured. The selfish dissipation which diffuses itself through a luxurious community, appears, as its last character, in the horrid form of indifference to children; and thus, every suc ceeding generation becomes worse than the preceding, till ignorance, as well as vice, predominates; and then all traces of the manly and christian character are

done away; the love of country, with all its generous train of virtues, appears no more on the active stage; and all the fountains of human happiness, and all the sublimer ends of human life, are annihilated.

The wild Indian, the rude Tartar, and the gross African, have the same erect gait, the same commodious form, the same senses, and most probably the same capacities of mind, with the exalted European; but how low in the scale of humanity has the want of instruction and intelligence placed them! In every

thing which is the true glory of man, in the useful and elegant arts of life, in the protecting forms of civil polity, in the intercourse of social life, in the higher walks of virtue and religion, they appear not as creatures of the same species; we hardly own them as fellows. If, then, you wish your children to come forward into life in the higher style of human nature; to be, in all grace, and dignity, and usefulness of character, the European, the Briton, the Christian; to pass from a life of honour here to a life of exalted reward hereafter; be all the parent to them, in instruction, discipline, example; and, as you have not betrayed the most glorious trust which the Creator can confide into your hands, you may go into the presence of your Lord, and wait his audit, with the virtuous hope of his approbation. Well done! good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over the charge which I committed to thy care, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

In the exercise of the parental authority, nature points to mildness and tenderness: it seems rather to allow of severity as the last resort of necessity, than ever to command it. And yet it frequently happens, that where the duty of parental care is fully admitted, parents endeavour to produce the great ends of it by severity and force, rather than by kindness and address. In these cases, generally speaking, the event will be disappointment. Every endeavour to inculcate virtue, to form manners, to instil instruction, accompanied with unmelting rigour, is like scattering good seed upon a soil chilled by eternal frosts. Se

verity can neither induce the love of virtue, nor hatred of vice; it terrifies in the season of infant dependence, but leaves no operative impression when the reins of parental government are thrown off. Severity, too, being often as equally directed to childish negligence, as to vicious propensities, moral distinctions are entirely destroyed by it; it imposes a mask of hypocrisy, but gives no genuine sense of virtue. It damps every generous principle; it checks every noble exertion of the mind; and stamps both personal manners, and the habit of thinking, with fear and servility.

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Having said thus much on the subject of extreme severity, I trust my meaning will not be perverted to the countenance of excessive indulgence. effects, in both cases, are equally fatal: it is of little consequence, either to the child or to the parents' conscience, whether his happiness and respectability have been destroyed by tyranny; or whether he is suffered to ruin himself, under a feeble authority, for want of due restraints. The authority of a parent should never be relaxed in any of its useful energies; but its most beneficial exercise will be found in the influence of reasoning, persuasion, and conviction; and not under the pressure of austere blind authority. Against both extremes the word of God has left us salutary cautions, "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; having them in subjection with all gravity."

Let it ever be impressed on the minds of females, that religion is the only solid basis of a good education. Much evil ensues from not teaching women, in early youth, to listen to their consciences; from not fixing in their minds a strong sense of responsibility. The idea of sin, as annexed to the female character, is generally confined to the want of chastity, and remorse seldom suffered, except when that most heinous deviation from virtue causes it. But if we examine the pure morality offered us in the gospel by our Saviour, we must observe, that compassionately

forgiving, as he exhorts us to be towards others, yet he urges us to be rigid towards ourselves. He did not suppose great examples of sin, that he might guide us in avoiding them, but makes us accountable for our inmost thoughts. Whom does he bless? Not the heroic, the undaunted; but the meek, the lowly. We have seldom opportunities of being heroic or undaunted in the cause of religion and virtue; whereas the daily and the hourly duties of life call forth meekness, humility, forbearance; and, by a regular and animated adherence to these, we keep the soul in a state of discipline, which enables it to rise and exert itself on great or rare occasions, and in all to glorify God.

The duties of women are peculiarly meek, humble, and forbearing. The dutiful daughter, the attentive wife, the watchful mother, the tender sister, the faithful friend, comprise the gentlest attributes of the Christian character. To bring those into practice, the mind must be early formed to consider them as the most important obligations: to that end, we should not check the first pang which the parental frown of disapprobation causes in a heart as yet tender and innocent; nor the soft, though perhaps romantic sympathy, which it feels in the joys or griefs of a brother or sister: we should sometimes even suffer the tear to fall for exaggerated omissions. In a youthful life, composed apparently of trifles, even those trifles become important, when they influence an accountable being, and should raise the mind to God; the world will soon blunt the keenness of their sensations.-After reviewing female character and situation, it becomes a duty to guard the young from the weakness of the first, and the dangers of the latter. Religion offers the only shield to protect them from both, and therefore religion is the first necessary study towards forming the exemplary female character, which is recommended to counteract the manners of the times; a study which must tend to the unprejudiced knowledge of the principles of faith, and the grounds of pious hope!

Mr. Addison observes, with respect to female tuition :

"There have not been sufficient pains taken in finding out proper employments and diversions for the fair ones. Their amusements seem contrived for them, rather as they are women, than as they are reasonable creatures; and are more adapted to the sex than to the species. The toilette is the great scene of business, and the right adjusting of their hair the principal employment of their lives. The sorting of a suit of ribands is reckoned a very good morning's work; and if they make an excursion to a mercer's or a toy-shop, so great a fatigue makes them unfit for any thing else all the day after. Their more serious occupations are sewing and embroidery, and their greatest drudgery the preparation of jellies and sweetmeats. This, I say, is the state of ordinary women; though I know there are multitudes of those of a more elevated life and conversation, that move in an exalted sphere of knowledge and virtue, that join all the beauties of the mind to the ornaments of dress, and inspire a kind of awe and respect, as well as love, into their male beholders."

Ganganelli, Pope Clement XIV. or, as he has been called by some, the Protestant Pope, has given some excellent instructions on education. Writing to a lady, he observes:

"The domestic education of your daughters, is no indifferent matter :-the condition of a mother imposes on you the most important duties. The world will continually interpose between you and your children, if you do not take care to keep it at a distance;-not with austerity, which excites only murmuring, but with that prudence which gains confidence. Your daughters will only prove hypocrites, if you perplex and encumber them with instruction; instead of which they will love religion, if you know how to make them do so by your example, and by your gentleness. Girls of twenty are not to be used as if they were but ten; there is a treatment and method of instruction suited to different ages, as well as to different conditions of life. Encourage a taste for good authors, and for employment, as much as you can; but with that freedom which does not tie them down to the minute, and with that spirit of discernment, which knows how to distinguish what is proper for a secular house, from what would more fitly become a cloister. Establish your daughters according to their fortunes and rank, without restraining their inclinations, unless they should tend to dissipation or folly. Marriage is the natural condition of

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