expression fix the idea. In the same manner as you should guard, as far as it is possible, against maiming the head, the eye, the hand, the ear, before the sight of these objects, a thousand times repeated, has imprinted the idea of them on the mind; so you should guard against making them talk of love, and gratitude, and confidence, before these sentiments have taken deep root in their hearts. I demand much, it is true; but all which I ask, nature and God demand equally. The observation of these natural and direct laws, only appears to you difficult, because you wish to join with them those which you have imposed upon yourself, and which society has imposed upon you these form truly an iron yoke. The world, and the prejudices you have imbibed in your intercourse with it, have stifled in you the conviction of the precious and intimate relations which subsist between your first maternal cares, and the developement of the moral powers of your children. With this conviction, the warmth, and the truth of maternal affection disappears likewise. You always say, indeed, that you love your children: but you feel it no longer. What poor deluded beings you are! Silence, then, the voice of these deplorable prejudices; retire into yourselves. Seek there the secret of that all-powerful force, without which you would not be worthy the name of mothers! Repulse this miserable world which besets you, which would tear you from yourselves,

duties. Has it any Has it in reserve for Forget, if necessary, attachment, that you

and from your most sacred dearer interest to offer you? you any greater happiness? all other labour, all other may be entirely occupied with the purity and holiness of your maternal vocation. It is in fulfilling in all its extent, this sublime vocation, that you will rejoice in the feeling of your power, and that you will draw near to God, your Creator, and the Creator of your child. The wonders of the power, and of the goodness of that God, will be manifested to you in the cares that you will bestow upon your children; it is there that you will recognise, and that you will admire the work of Providence. Faith will grow up in the hearts of your children, as well as love, gratitude, and affection. What child will not believe on the God whom its parent invokes-on the God who takes care of its mother, as its mother takes care of it? But be careful never to pronounce this sacred name before him; and above all, to cause him to repeat it, without having connected it with all that which is the most tender, sacred, and venerable in gratitude and confidence. Above all recollect that it is according to the conduct you have displayed towards him, that the impression will be formed which he must receive of the name and knowledge of his God.

If in your care for him, he has always experienced your love, his heart will be open to the love

of God, he will feel already that love, even in the vagueness of his first physical sensations. But, in the opposite case, the name of God will be to him but a vain sound.

Mothers! if you have not taught your babes how sweet the Saviour is, tremble lest they should never learn it! PESTALOZZI.

I THINK I may say that, of all the men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are-good or evil, useful or not,-by their education.

LOCKE.

INSTRUCTION is the food of the mind, it is like the dew and the rain to the rich soil. As the soil, and the rain, and the dew, cause the tree to swell, and put forth its tender shoots; so do books, and study, and discourse feed the mind, and make it unfold its hidden powers.

Cultivate therefore your own mind, receive the nurture of instruction, that the man within you may grow and flourish. Oh cherish then this precious mind, feed it with truth, nourish it with knowledge; it comes from God, it is made in his image, the mind of man is made for immortality. BARBAULD.

MOTHER! revere God's image in thy child!
No earthly gift thy parent arms enfold;
No mortal tongue as yet, the worth hath told
Of that, which on thy bosom, meek and mild,
Rests its weak head. Oh! not by sense beguil'd,
Gaze on that form of perishable mould!
Though first by thee it liv'd, on thee it smil'd,

Yet not for thee existence must it hold,

For God's it is, not thine, thou art but one
To whom that happy destiny is given,
To watch the dawnings of a future heaven,
And to be such in purity and love,

As best may win it to that life above.

ANONYMOUS.

ON MATERNAL RESPONSIBILITY.

THE Woman who would educate her children with success, must indeed be endowed with sense sufficient to enable her to reflect on the motives which actuate her own conduct, and to examine into the tempers and dispositions of her own mind. Never must she for a moment fail to recollect, that with those objects, to which her

own desires invariably point, her children will naturally associate the idea of good; and with those which excite her aversion, they will connect the idea of evil: and that these associations, if not counteracted, will without doubt have an influence on the future character.

In this point of view, the importance of early education is far greater than we can possibly calculate. Were the prejudices which prevent the due consideration of its importance to be happily removed, it would become a primary object of solicitude to the Christian, and the patriot, to raise the female mind to the sense of the dignity of a situation, which enables it not only to effect the happiness or misery of individuals, but to influence the character of nations, and ameliorate the condition of the human race.

When we observe how ineffectually throughout all ages, wisdom has laboured by her instructive lessons, to restrain the passions, which in infancy might have been subdued; to awaken the affections, which might in infancy have been cherished; and to invigorate those intellectual energies, which ought in infancy to have been exercised; it will not seem hyperbolical to assert, that if mothers were universally qualified for the proper performance of these important duties, it would do more towards the progressive improvement of the human race, than all the discoveries of science and researches of philosophy! HAMILTON.