active goodness, in freely communicating what they have acquired, in lending their cordial, personal aid to all that is improving, enlightened, Christian; enjoying themselves, and diffusing around them the happiness of the heart. "Ah! were the human race but wise, And would they reason well, That earth would be a Paradise, Which folly makes a Hell*." The rank that woman ought to hold in human estimation, must be secured to her by * Religion is allowed a respectable place among the studies of the nursery. All those useful tables of instruction are assiduously employed, which teach, who was the first, the wisest, the meekest, the strongest man ; and the nursling is carefully conducted, by a catechetical process, into the theory and practice of a Christian. As, however, the child advances to boyish or girlish years, this religious discipline is pretty generally relaxed, in order to allow sufficient scope for the cultivation of those modish pursuits which mark the man and woman of Fashion. And here I cannot help remarking, how anxious the greater part of Fashionable Parents are, to guard the minds of their children against the permanent influence of that Religion which they yet have caused them to be taught. The fact is, that they would have them acquainted with the technical language, and expert in the liturgical formalities of Christianity, for these acquirements can neither disparage properly directing, purifying, and elevating her powers by training her to the duties of a daughter, a friend, a relation, a wife, a mother, a Christian. Her Parents will then have her reverence, her gratitude; her husband will partake of her happiness; her children of her instruction, her society, her delights; her fellowcreatures of her sympathy and assistance, and God of her love. She will prove the sincerity of her profession by the purity of her life; every action will have its source in the Christian principle of love to God and love to man. She their character, nor impede their pleasures; but a serious impression of its Truths upon their hearts might disaffect them to the follies and vices which they are destined to practise; and therefore is the thing, of all others, that is most to be dreaded. The Parents are, to say the truth, not a little hampered by the engagements under which they have bound the child, on the one part; and the character which they wish him to sustain, on the other. To leave him in ignorance of a covenant in which he has been involuntarily included, would be a fraud upon his conscience; and yet to have him renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, would be the utter ruin of his fashionable reputation. What other course, then, can parents thus circumstanced pursue, than that of inculcating these lessons before they can be understood, and removing their impression before they can be practised. Fashionable World Displayed.-Rev. John Owen. will live in the blessed enjoyment of tranquillity of mind, in "The peace the world can give not nor destroy." Parents will say that they desire to see their Children wise and good; and that no expense is spared to procure the best instructors. Unfortunately for parents who are liberal of money, and sparing of personal trouble-who are slothful in this great business-money will not purchase love money will not purchase patience to examine, and impartiality to appreciate the powers of their children. of their children. Money will not purchase tenderness to encourage the diffident, or zeal to bestow pains on the moderately gifted. Parental affection, acting under enlarged and enlightened views of duty, is alone equal to the unwearied patience, the unremitting attention, the impartial Love, the tender skill requisite in the formation and guidance of the Infant heart. By Parents must be laid the foundation of all that is truly valuable in character: they must personally apply themselves to their FIRST duty, that of giving a practical Christian Education; a duty the most important, the most difficult, the most noble, in comparison of which all others sink into insignificance. Education must begin with that which is the most powerful, Maternal Love, having a spiritual end in view. A Mother who is constantly with her Children, who devotes herself to the duty assigned to her by Providence, has a manifest advantage over other instructors. Not a day passes in which she who has a real title to the Parental character, may not find opportunities of improving the minds, and cultivating the hearts of her children. Did Parents feel the true interest which they ought to feel in the real and permanent welfare of their charges, had they a thorough sense of their all-important duties, of the awful responsibility under which they lie, of training their children for immortality, would they relinquish this privilege at the suggestions of selfishness, indolence, custom, or worldly wisdom? or consent to sacrifice Christianity at the shrine of fashionable infatuation and imbecility? "Is duty a mere sport, or an employ? PARENTS! engage substitutes for other and inferior duties; but if you wish for success in 12 Christian Education, personally devote your selves to the great cause--a cause worthy of the highest talents, of all the energies of the the most enlightened mind. Observe, Pestalozzi's system is neither rapid nor dazzling; but from the birth developes, strengthens, exercises all the faculties gradually: teaches the infant to discover, to use, to depend upon his own powers, and does not at any subsequent period merely store his memory with the ideas of others, but habituates him to think-to reflect *. The slate and chalk should be in frequent use; and instead of a multiplicity of books, questions should be put in new points of view, and every mode of question tried, that the pupils may exercise their understanding and not depend upon memory. They must be detached from resting in words, and led to fix the mind on things †. As a child is by nature * Celui qui n'a pas appris à réfléchir, n'est pas instruit ; ou il l'est mal, ce qui est pire encore.-Condillac. + C'est un grand inconvenient qu'il ait plus de mots que d'idées, et qu'il sache dire plus de choses qu'il n'en peut penser qu'une des raisons pourquoi les paysans prit plus juste que les gens de la ville |