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the open air, and abstinence from luxurious diet, will fortify their bodies against physical hardships. I know of no condition more pitiable than that of a youth nurtured in the lap of indulgence, thrown unprepared and undisciplined upon the stormy ocean of life. Morally or physically, he is almost certain to make shipwreck. So far as the disciplining of mere external circumstances avails, the children of the middle classes stand a better chance than the children of the aristocracy. “It is a terrible thing," says Pascal, and he says truly, "to reflect on the effect of rank. It gives to the child newly born a degree of consideration which half a century of labour and virtue could not produce." Such consideration, the result of his condition, must, if not counteracted by a judicious education, prove unfavourable to his moral nature, and retard, instead of accelerate, his progress along that thorny and difficult path which alone leads to real greatness.

The discipline of a public school will no doubt serve the purpose of hardening the mind; but then it too often hardens the heart also, and that, God knows, requires all the softening of which it is susceptible. The moral education does not keep pace with the intellectual; nor can it be otherwise while the system upon which our great schools are conducted remains what it is. They may send forth youths well versed in the classics and mathematics; but what, meantime, have become of the benevolent affections? Will not the young man

thus educated turn out cold, calculating, selfish, very fit to enter into the heartless dissipation of college life-very fit to make his way in the world --but will he love and serve God, and contribute his share to the happiness of the domestic circle, and the still wider circle of society?

It must be obvious, that the tone of mind induced by constant indulgence in childhood, seasoned too with that pride which the foolish vanity of parents encourages by extravagant praises bestowed upon every trivial action, is well calculated to produce youthful presumption, and a failure in that respect due to age and experience.

Young people who have quick abilities, and who happen to live with those who are inferior to them, either in knowledge or capacity, are apt to become positive and opiniated. They measure all the world by the individuals with whom they have measured themselves; and as they have been convinced that they have been right in many cases, they take it for granted that their judgment must be always infallible.

Infant phenomena being in fashion, many children, particularly little girls, are educated to bear their part in the drawing-room show. They are harpists, pianists, figurantes, recite verses, and act in plays, and, to crown the whole, their portraits, accompanied by laudatory verses, embellish ScrapBooks and Annuals. Now, all this infantine notoriety cannot take place except at the cost of a very considerable portion of childhood's sweet

simplicity, and the puffing up of their young hearts with vanity and conceit.

Parents often commit a great error by repeating the smart sayings of their children, for the edification of friends and acquaintance, when the children themselves are present. This is not lost upon them; they grow up egotistical and selfsufficient, proffering their crude opinions without reserve, often in direct contradiction of the opinions of their seniors.

I would not have young persons excluded from mingling in conversation; on the contrary, I would have them, even in childhood, admitted to take a part in it whenever it is of a description to interest and improve them. This I hold to be desirable on every account: necessary to intellectual developement, and the formation of manners; a source of innocent happiness, of which it would be cruel to deprive them; and, not least important, a certain means of preserving them from low and vicious associates. Children accustomed to listen to and take delight in the conversation of wellinformed persons, and to be treated in company in such a manner as to put them at their ease, will, of their own accord, shrink from association with servants and other ignorant and vulgar perNo restrictions that could be imposed on them to that end would prove so effectual a safeguard. If they have been properly disciplined from infancy, they will not presume upon this indulgence, or be guilty of impertinence. Instead

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of rudely contradicting or putting forth their opinions in opposition to those of older and better informed persons, they will venture their remarks with diffidence, and listen with attention.

JUVENILE AMUSEMENTS.

The simpler manners of our ancestors did not afford a tithe of the indulgences and amusements for children which are now enjoyed, as a matter of course by every little Master and Miss throughout the British dominions. The present may truly be called "the golden age" for children. They are every where, and all in all. Many very clever persons devote a large portion of their time to writing books for them; human ingenuity is taxed to invent, and human industry to fabricate, toys for them; in short, whether for good or evil, they certainly occupy a very fair proportion of the world's attention.

Many pleasures, which would be duly appreciated and relished at a more mature period of life, are now forestalled in childhood, when they can be but imperfectly enjoyed. Thus the innocent excitements of human existence are early worn out, and there is nothing left for after years but ennui, or, still worse, excitements not unmingled with guilt, and fruitful in remorse. The countrybred child has in this respect a decided advantage over the town child. Its amusements being less artificial, do not pall so soon. Most children would he happier if they possessed only one half, or less

than that, of the toys so profusely lavished upon them; and those toys should always be capable of some useful application, or such as may exercise and stimulate the ingenuity of the owner.

Happiest of, all are those children early thrown upon their own resources. The Author recollects

an instance of two little girls, orphans, brought up in an obscure village in a remote district of England. They were poor, and had but few friends, consequently were without those toys furnished by the toy-shops; few books, and few, if any, companions of their own age. Yet were the amusements of these children infinite in variety. One of them, the youngest, possessed the imitative and inventive faculty in a remarkable degree. Whatever she saw, she set to work to produce something resembling it, her sister assisting in the execution of her plans. If dolls were the order of the day, they were manufactured either out of pasteboard or some other material—for I ought to mention that paper and pencils, and cheap boxes of colours, all in tolerably large quantities, were the only indulgences, costing money, allowed these children; the result of which judicious liberality was the early developement of a talent for drawing. On one occasion they constructed, of pasteboard, a miniature house, consisting of several rooms, which they furnished with suitable pasteboard furniture, and with inmates of painted paper. The happiness they enjoyed, while thus occupied, far exceeded that which the acquisition of the most

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