growing up tale-bearers, triflers, lovers of tittletattle, and idle gossip.

Among the sacrifices which society, as at present constituted, exacts of us, I know of none more annoying than the imposed necessity of listening often to the sort of idle gossip just described. To do so without betraying disgust or impatience, sometimes even to be compelled to take part in it, certainly is an exercise of benevolence, scarcely sufficiently appreciated. When suffering under the infliction, I own I have frequently been tempted to rebuke triflers by relating an anecdote of the late Mr. Fuseli, the painter. Fuseli had that dislike to commonplace observations, which might be expected in a man of his ardent imagination and cultivated intellect. After sitting perfectly silent for some time, in his own room, during the "bald disjointed chat" of some idle callers-in who were gabbling with one another about the weather and other topics equally interesting, he suddenly exclaimed, "We had pork for dinner to day." "Dear! Mr. Fuseli, what an odd remark!" "Why," replied he, “it is as good as anything you have been saying for the last half hour." Though the story does not tell much in favour of the artist's politeness, particularly as the interlocutary exclamation sounds feminine, we must allow that the manner of the reproof was both ingenious and original.

Women have been accused and not without some reason, of being particularly addicted to gossipping and petty scandal. It would seem that they

laboured under the same imputation in the days of St. Paul, who in his First Epistle to Timothy, complains of certain younger widows, "that they learn to be idle, wandering from house to house, and not only idle but talkers also, and busy-bodies: speaking things which they ought not." To how many of the triflers of society at the present day, this censure applies! and not to female triflers alone, but to triflers of the male sex also. Witness the loungers of small provincial towns and watering places, the time-killers of every grade and denomination. Follow them in their round of morning visits, and listen to the idle prattle, for it is seldom anything better which falls from their lips, and you will at once acknowledge them a match for any, the veriest female gossips that ever acquired tea-table notoriety.

Give women a better education, engage them in worthier pursuits, and there will be no more idle gossip amongst them. They will be both more cheerful, and more discreet; more domestic, as well as more intellectual; lovers of home, rather than of gadding; for, as has been lately well observed by a lively lady writer, "those can the most easily dispense with society, who are the most calculated to adorn it: they only are dependant on it who possess no mental resources; for though they bring nothing to the general mart, like beggars, they are too poor to remain at home."

There is one species of indiscreet speaking far from uncommon, though wholly differing from any

already treated of, inasmuch as it affects none but the individual addicted to it, and does not, like tale-bearing, or a gossipping betrayal of confidence, inflict injury upon any other person living.. I allude to the very unwise practice some people have of recounting, sometimes even to mere acquaintance, in the hope of obtaining sympathy, affronts sustained by them in their intercourse with society. Against this practice I would particularly caution the young; for it is an error into which their ingenuousness and natural yearning for the sympathy of their fellow-creatures, is very likely to betray them. It is bad policy, they may rest assured, to appear in the light of a person whom the world has ill-used. Unfortunately there is in these days. no knight-errantry of benevolence, eager to take up arms in defence of the oppressed; but, on the contrary, a prevailing proneness to believe that the weaker party must be in the wrong. If the person offering the affront is of a rank and consequence greater than the aggrieved, to complain of the injury, were little less than to court a repetition of it from other quarters; if of inferior rank, a certain degree of humiliation is implied, which it would be well to avoid. There is a homely old adage, which, homely as it is, ought not to be despised, "When an ass kicks you, never tell." It is only to our tried and intimate friends that we may with safety open our whole hearts, or look for any compassion in such minor miseries; and even upon their sympathy we must not draw too largely, or

too often; to do so would be as distinct an act of indiscretion as any of which we can be guilty.

ECONOMY.

ECONOMY is discretion in the regulation of our pecuniary affairs. Are there any so high as to set Economy at nought? If there be, I will not meddle with them, but address myself solely to those classes and conditions of persons, amongst whom the practice of it must be admitted as essential. Where the means are straitened, economy is a virtue of the first magnitude, inasmuch as the exercise of it enables us to practice those other virtues, which, considered separately, may be said to rank higher. Generosity, without justice, or, in other words, generosity exercised at other people's expense, is neither more nor less than self-gratification; while generosity, exercised through the means of economy, is self-denial.

There are so many mistakes made in regard to economy, that I hold it quite as necessary to draw the line definitely between it and parsimony, as between pride and self-respect. Many persons persuade themselves that they are only practising a laudable economy, when they are ten feet deep in the miry slough of parsimony. Others, again, there are, who scout a wholesome and needful economy, mis-naming it parsimony.

Economy, to maintain its claim to be ranked with discretion, must be a silent virtue, wholly without pretension or parade. Whenever it be

comes boastful, it borders upon meanness, and is offensive. Like a fine and complicated piece of mechanism, it must methodically perform its office by means of a thousand little wheels invisible to the eye, permitting the result alone to meet public scrutiny. The Spectator observes, that true ecoin our affairs has the same effect upon our nomy fortunes which good-breeding has upon conversation. This precisely explains my meaning, and justifies me in classing it under the head of discretion. Its basis is justice and resolution; it knows not envy or covetousness; and all that it requires to prevent its degenerating into penu riousness is a sound judgment, acting in concert with benevolence.

The usual sense in which Economy is spoken of, relates to the management of money; but in order to teach it practically to children, who have not generally many opportunities of exercising it on a grand scale, we must extend its meaning very considerably; in short, to them it must comprehend whatever things belong to them, or are entrusted to their care. This is counsel strictly inculcated by the Edgeworths, and very necessary counsel it is. "If they are negligent of what is in their charge, this negligence should not be repaired by servants or friends. They should feel the natural consequences of their own neglect, but no other punishment should be inflicted on them, and they should be left to make their own reflections. We recommend, for we must descend to