her neatness and cheerful deportment, always to make their home agreeable. And nothing but want of health should prevent her, (in whatever station she is placed,) from a general oversight of her domestic concerns. Every mother who is under the necessity of committing her offspring to the care of a nurse, should have a watchful care over that nurse, and spend as much of her time with her children as she can. What employment can a mother be engaged in, that affords equal pleasure, and is of equal importance with the proper instruction of her children and family?

By indulging a desire to appear more wealthy, and to make a greater show, than their circumstances would admit, many have improperly extended their business, and in the end, lost what they had, and been reduced to poverty. How much more desirable to a virtuous and feeling mind is a cottage, (even a solitary one) with a competency, through the means of industry and frugality, than the show of that wealth and grandeur, which must end in sorrow and disappointment. But this is not all. There

are circumstances attending, that are of much greater importance than loss of property. A man who in his business, is straining every nerve to accomplish this desire of obtaining wealth, to gratify the wishes, and to indulge the solicitations of his wife and children, cannot have that leisure for the proper improvement of his own mind, and for the cultivation of his own talents, that he ought to have, and which his station as an accountable being, placed at the head of a family, certainly requires.

Were children taught by the example of their parents properly to estimate the advantages of wealth; and were the virtues of frugality, temperance, and economy, brought into proper estimation, and were that estimation, which is now bestowed on grandeur, made the reward of merit, have we not reason to believe that it would not only produce domestic, but national prosperity? "built, not on the quicksands of extended commerce; not on the bloodstained treasures of the east or west; but on the solid rock of public and of private virtue."

Let every mother, then, who has a suffi

cient degree of christian philanthropy, and parental tenderness, to feel a glow of heart in the contemplation of such a picture, consider herself as an instrument in the hand of a kind Providence to promote its realization. Let her reflect how much the proper education of one single family may eventually contribute towards it. And that while the fruits of her labour are a rich compensation of peace, virtue and contentment, which may descend through generations yet unborn, she will herself enjoy a suitable and permanent reward. But should she see her beloved children, in the bloom of youth, languishing under the pressure of disease, and about to enter into a state of fixedness, how sweet would be the consolation, that she had endeavoured, according to the best of her understanding, to prepare them for such a state! And that He who had blessed her pious care, would take the precious treasure He had loaned, into the mansions of eternal bliss.

Happy would it be for mankind if this care were more generally extended: we should not then see so many of our young people trifling away in idleness, vanity, and dissi

pation, that time which is lent them for great and important purposes. There would not be so much anxiety and expense in decorating those poor bodies of clay, which are seen today, and to-morrow are consigned to the silent tomb, there to mingle with their parent earth. We should then see more of our sons pursuing those objects which tend to ennoble the mind, and to promote the welfare and happiness of the human race, and our daughters uniting with them in the practice of those virtues which are best calculated to answer the end of our existence: glorifying God while here, and thereby becoming prepared to enjoy and adore him in the life to

come.

What must be the feelings of that mother, who has unhappily been the instrument of sowing and cultivating in the bosoms of her children, the seeds of pride and ostentation, even in the nursery! for to the nursery may be traced many of the evils which abound. For instance: how common it is, when children are dressed in something new or clean, instead of informing them that it is to make them sweet and comfortable, they are

per

sent to the other side of the room that we may see how pretty they look! and for forming this with an air of ostentation, they are rewarded with a kiss! Can this be the object of a fond mother's ambition for the darling children of her bosom? Is it to this, she would devote the offspring, a benevolent Creator has committed to her care?

Many are the females, who might have shone with brightness, been ornaments to their sex, and useful members of the community, but for the influence of those destructive mental associations which have been early and deeply rooted, and which are seldom, if ever, entirely subdued. But where these unhappy associations have already taken place, it is our duty, as well as our interest, properly to ascertain how they may be most effectually counteracted. It cannot be done by grave lessons, and serious arguments alone, or by formal declamations against the vanity of dress. One remedy, and one only remains, in which there can be any probability of success. The mother who would have her children superior to pride and vanity, must be superior to them herself. Every lesson