maker, but to her mother was the premonition of consumption. But in spite of all my remonstrances, she would attend the theatre, she would attend late balls and parties, she would lace tight, she would walk out in thin shoes and thin dresses, notwithstanding for more than two years she has been subject to fainting fits. You, who have never had a daughter, Mrs. B., wonder, perhaps, why I did not control Margaret in these matters; but as well might a mother think to stem a torrent, as to control a girl of sixteen, who came out' into society at fourteen, and who of course, has yielded for two years to the tyranny of fashion. I fear, Mrs. B., that the generality of our young mothers will make but poor nurses.'

"What an acknowledgment to be extracted from a mother!! But the question returns, when a young lady, during the period of her minority, is confined at school, or has been allowed to pass her time lolling in the drawingroom, reading novels, flirting' at gay parties; in short, going the whole round of fashionable life, what is there in the nature of things that shall at once transform her into the healthy, disinterested, and attentive wife and mother?

"In these stations will she have no need of firm health -no need of firm nerves-no need of fortitude, patience, and self-denial? If neither her heart nor her mind has been fortified to bear up under trials, how will she bear with vexations in family matters? how will she bear with disappointments which may meet her at every step? how will she bear with interruptions, not only in her retirements, but in her more important and necessary plans of usefulness? how will she bear with the waywardness, the petulence, the weakness of her children? with the impertinence, the ignorance, the dullness, and caprice of her domestics? How, I ask, will she bear up under these and ten thousand other difficulties and temptations, if she

has neither health of body nor vigor of mind to resist and overcome them ?

"In the training of our daughters, we should not for a day lose sight of the tremendous fact, that there are two worlds, and that the present life is absolutely a probationary state to one which is unchanging.

"The fact cannot be controverted, that woman was not formed for a listless or a sedentary life, neither was she made for a life of pleasure. On the contrary, her duties are of the most active kind, and perpetually recurring. Nor can these duties be thoroughly learned but in the school of experience. How much wiser, then, that she begin her apprenticeship at home; under the watchful eye of a good mother, whose patience and partiality will ever far exceed that of a devoted husband, whose youthful imagination has always pictured his wife as a paragon of female excellence-at home, where it may be supposed a father's pecuniary circumstances will allow of some prodigality in needful experiments, rather than those of a young man just set up in business for himself, and who, perhaps, in commencing the early family establishment, had to resist many remonstrances of his own judgment and reason, and the better judgment of family connections.

"Even in cases where a mother is disposed, and really has intended, to avoid the evils we have here hinted at, though her daughter is professedly employed, still her efforts do not amount to anything-her attempts at industry are a sort of busy idleness. She does not, in fact, relieve her mother of any of her domestic burdens, or sympathize with her under her responsibility, which, if divided, would not be oppressive.

"It is by actually participating with the mother in the incessant toils which must at times be sustained even in well-regulated families, that our daughters can become qualified for the endless care and perpetual obligations from

which it is impossible for a conscientious and prudent housewife to escape. Miss H. More beautifully portrays that kind of education which is requisite to prepare for domestic happiness. That,' she says, 'is best, which will tend to form a friend and companion in a wife-that which will inculcate principle, polish, taste; regulate the temper, cultivate reason, subdue the passions, direct the feelings, habituate to reflection and self-denial-and, more especially, that which will refer all the actions, feelings, sentiments, tastes, and passions, to the love and fear of God.'"

But those who do not possess these qualities, and who treasure not up that knowledge in their hearts which will thus be developed in all their actions, cannot open their mouth with wisdom, neither can the law of kindness dwell upon their tongues, because it is not in their hearts. Their pursuits have been utterly selfish; and they have never learned to hold communion with the Father of their spirits, nor to sympathize in his great schemes of benevolence. In a comparative sense, they may be negatively innocent, but not positively virtuous. If they have not spoken ill of their neighbor, they have devised no good; nor obeyed the command, "Walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time." "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”—Col. 45, 6. Surely this implies capacity, or understandingdisciplined in all that is capable of exalting and refining the human soul. The scriptures, so far from encouraging ignorance and inattention to exalted subjects in any, abound with exhortations to be wise-wise-hearted-to walk in wisdom-to open the lips with understanding. Such characters, too, are commended, and held up to our admiration. Such passages as the following are not unfrequent: "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of

your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers."-Eph. 4: 29. "Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honey-comb; honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon."-Cant. 4: 11.

How little resemblance is there between the character so tenderly painted in the above, and that of a vain, frivolous woman. So appropriate were her words, that "her lips drop as the honey-comb ;" an allusion perhaps to the fable of Nestor, who, it was said, uttered such sweet sayings that the honey-bees hovered round his lips to catch his words as they fell. This figure of representing wise words as honey and nectar, seems to have been a favorite of the ancients; and there is much beauty in the metaphor. As in Isaiah 7: 15, "Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good."

"As an ear

Wisdom of speech, proceeding from a wise heart, has been recognized as the highest ornament, and the most precious of gems. "A word, fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver."-Prov. 25: 11. ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear," ver. 12. "Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer," ch. 24 : 26.

In the last quotation, we see the esteem in which the words of true wisdom are ever held. We regard with veneration and affection those who utter wise sayings; but O how differently do we estimate the human being, who, though tending to a state of unending existence, is so weak, and so lost to the sublimity of her station, as to dwell continually on the trifles of dress and amusement. And how, think you, does God regard such a soul? But for his pitying love, would it not be looked upon with utter scorn? Would he not say of it, as of the unfruitful tree, "Why cumbereth it the ground?"

From the influence which, as we have shown, woman exerts over the man, not only as a mother, but as a companion, we see how important it is that wisdom be attached to the character of a wife. Who can half fulfill his destiny, when intimately connected with one in whose heart folly is bound up; who will interrupt his most sublime musings, by her chit-chat respecting the entertainments given by Mrs. A., the neighborhood scandal respecting Mrs. B., or some other equally foolish and annoying topic? The solitude of the desert would be more congenial to an elevated, intellectual, and heavenly mind, than such a senseless, annoying associate. An automaton, or a speechless doll, would be infinitely more desirable than a woman who knows and talks nothing but nonsense.

But it is not simply because such a woman is an unfit companion for an intelligent and refined husband, that she should be taught to aspire for something higher and holier. She has herself a soul, more priceless than suns and stars, enduring as the ages of eternity. For her own sake, as an immortal being, her heart should be educated to the practice of the highest virtues, and her intellect trained to a lofty appreciation of the works of God, and to a capacity to communicate her high conceptions to others. She is to become a sharer with angels in their admiration of the wonders of creative power; a sympathizer with seraphs in their deeds of love. And shall she be suffered to fritter away the moments allotted her for a preparation for such glorious society, in those employments which are so utterly beneath an immortal being? God forbid.

Let her soul be so trained that none of its powers shall be dwarfed and cramped. Let her be free to make the highest attainments in knowledge and virtue, not only that she may fully discharge her duties as a woman, but that she may fulfill her mission as a child of God, and be prepared to enter upon the life to come, a meet associate