thought for the morrow, and enjoy uninterrupted buoyancy of spirits. If at the same time we enjoy health and a moderate share of wisdom, this is the season of unruffled happiness.

Youth is, however, the period in which character is formed, in which impressions are imbibed, and in which pliant nature yields to instruction; and is, therefore, necessarily an age of restraint, study, and discipline. Without these we should be mere savages, and without Education we should resemble wild horses as compared with trained ones. If restraint therefore diminishes the freedom of your youth, it is necessary to the well-being of your future lives, and in yielding to it your reason ought to teach you that you should never regard it as irksome, but as the means of future prosperity.

Habit deprives restraint of its severity. What we do daily we at length perform with pleasure, and forbearance becomes even a greater punishment than oft recurring performance. Regularity therefore reconciles restraint with our feelings; and in a short time the mind yields, and happiness and restraint become compatible. Young persons need not therefore repine after that liberty of action which is incompatible with their preparation for the duties of social life; for all beings are creatures of habit, and with this their personal happiness will be identified, after a week or a month, whatever be the duties required of them. On this account I have always accustomed you to rise at the same hour, to be punctual at meals, to pursue the same studies at recurring periods, and, in short, to render business. an affair of habit, that it might become as essential to your happiness as to your improvement.

In justification of this reasoning I may appeal to your own observations on others, and to your own personal experience. You never feel nor hear of the irksomeness of restraint except within the first week after long holidays, during which a desultory

waste of time had destroyed your habits of business; while this irksomeness becomes constant, when, owing to the mistaken indulgence of parents, young persons are often taken home, and thereby disturbed in those habits which constitute the unchequered happiness of their less pampered companions.

A school is an epitome of the world. She who is happy among her companions will be happy in her similar intercourse with the world. I never knew an unhappy child a happy woman. The same causes operate in one sphere as in the other. Some bad passion, some obliquity of temper, some error of the understanding, some foible, or some weakness, either of which ought to be exposed, conquered, and corrected, is always the primary cause, unless it arise from ill-health or bodily pain. The test is the being loved by others, for those who are so are always happy in themselves; but, if hated, the cause is mere re-action to some bad dispositions, and to be disliked and to be unhappy are synonymous. The rule of happiness is, therefore, the rule of good, amiable, and virtuous. conduct, in government of temper, and in acts of liberality, courtesy, and kindness.

Other causes of unhappiness are want of wisdom; seeking to be what you are not, being discontented with your fortune or person, and indulging in jealousy and envy of others. If another is esteemed more beautiful than you are, remember that no repining can change your condition; but you may be her equal in the more sterling qualities of amiability, learning, and personal acquirements. Though another has larger fortune and more splendid relatives, you may be as respectable and be as much esteemed by the world, if you are her equal in virtue, and your desires correspond with your station. Or, if another possesses any natural talents in which you cannot become her equal, you have other powers in which, with due exertion, you may

become her superior. But a fish might as property become unhappy because it cannot fly in the air, or a bird because it cannot swim in the water, as a young lady become unhappy because she is not so tall, so fair, so rich, so able to sing or to dance, as another. She wants to be herself and another at the same time; and instead of making the most of her own powers and talents, she is sinking herself, by an idiotic feeling which can do her no good, but must do her mischief by increasing the distance which she so foolishly laments.

At the same time Nature counterbalances its advantages and disadvantages. The nightingale sings in plain feathers, and the peacock screeches in beautiful plumage; and so it is with human beings all have peculiar talents of their own, and none have the talents and quality of all. None therefore are justified in rendering themselves uncomfortable because they do not possess some advantages which are enjoyed by others, but all should cultivate their own powers and be content with the exclusive display of them.

LETTER III.

Health-Exercise -Cheerfulness.

MY ESTEEMED PUPILS.

My preceding letter details some of the causes of unhappiness, and points out some of the means likely to promote a desirable state of happiness, at least of a happy mind, for unhappiness and happiness depend chiefly on the mind, and not on things exterior. The only real cause of unhappiness is ill health, while those obliquities of temper which lead to quarrels and animosities, arise from bad

digestion and imperfect secretions, created either by disease or by excesses and irregularities.

Bad spirits are commonly created by too much, or indigestible food, and often by late hours. Temperance, moderation, and regularity, are, therefore, essential to health, happiness, and cheerful spirits. Those oppressive head-aches to which females are subject, arise almost entirely from demanding too much of the stomach, and from exhaustion or debility in the functions of that important organ. Plain diet, taken in moderate quantity, at four light meals a day, produce the most salutary effects on the body and mind.

Young persons are apt to contrast their school fare with the indulgencies conceded at home; but they forget the health and spirits which result from one system, and the uncomfortable, the feverish, and diseased consequences of the other. I always found that my sick-list was four times greater within a month after vacation than at any other period; and that at other times it has consisted chiefly of young ladies who had been indulging at home. My pupils will, I am persuaded, not ascribe this reasoning to parsimony, nor with any design to countenance a system of starvation from selfish motives, for I have always been an advocate for sufficiency and even for abundance; my object is merely to plead for wise moderation in the use of abundance.

Exercise in the open air I have always considered of primary importance, both to health and spirits. One or two long promenades in the vicinity ought to be taken every day when the weather permits, and a free use permitted of a spacious play-ground. Dancing is highly salutary, and the skipping-rope and dumb-bells should always be encouraged. It has too, as you know, been my custom to expect each of my pupils to bring with her at least one hard flesh brush, and nothing perhaps ever contributed more to the general health of my scholars. The

cold bath, the shower bath, and even the general use of a wet sponge daily, is not less beneficial than the flesh brush; and many of your hearty grandmammas have, through life, acknowledged to me their gratitude for enforcing these habits. The use of the flesh brush and the cold wet sponge is a security against tormenting rheumatisms, and they tend to keep the entire skin in healthy action. For my own part, the constant use of them in summer and winter, has preserved me for ten years past against those tormenting colds with which most of my friends are visited on every change of weather.

What is wealth what is splendour what are beloved friends-what is learning what are accomplishments what are all the advantages of life if unaccompanied by a strong constitution, continued health, and a flow of happy spirits? A modern writer, in speaking of his own good spirits, states that he would rather have possessed them than inherited an estate of ten thousand a year; and he secured them by attending to his health, by temperance, by moderation, and, as he says, by looking to the bright side of things. That scho lastic system is, therefore, imperfect in an essential point, which does not constantly keep in view the preservation of health, and the improvement of the constitution, and all studies ought to be directed in subservience to this principle.

I confess I am no admirer of the palid cheek and the languid eye. I am persuaded, by long experience, that the roses are preferable to the lilies, and I have observed that progress in knowledge is always proportioned to the animation of the eye. Nor is a rosy complexion and vivacity of countenance incompatible with delicacy of manners and sensibility of feeling; for I have often seen both united in the most interesting perfection. I advise, therefore, that the pale-faced endeavour, by increased energy of action, to plant the bloom, if not