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on this subject. Instead of his mild expostulations on the flagrant wickedness of his sons, Nay, my sons, it is no good report that I hear," he ought to have exercised his authority as a parent and magistrate, in punishing and restraining their crimes. CECIL.

THE public state of religion in the world must entirely depend on the care bestowed on the cultivation of it in private families. If the nursery be neglected, how is it possible that the plantation should prosper? Such as the families are of which congregations, churches, and kingdoms are composed, such will be the flourishing or decayed state of religion in these larger communities; and consequently it as as clear as noon day, that the disregard shewn to God in our households, is the fatal source of that amazing corruption of manners in the present age, which almost every one pretends to lament, but almost none sets himself in earnest to reform. Would you put a stop to abounding iniquity and promote the cause of God and religion? begin at home, and let your Maker have that honour in your families to which he is entitled.

REV. W. WALKER:

HAST thou sounded the depth of yonder sea,
And counted the sands that under it be?

Hast thou measured the height of heaven above?
Then may'st thou mete a mother's love.

Hast thou talked with the blessed of leading on
To the throne of God some wandering son?
Hast thou witnessed the angels' bright employ?
Then may'st thou speak of a mother's joy.

Evening and morn hast thou watch'd the bee
Go forth on her errands of industry?—-
The bee for herself hath gather'd and toiled;
But a mother's cares are all for her child.

Hast thou gone with the traveller, tho' afar,
From pole to pole, and from star to star?
Thou hast but in ocean, earth, or sea,
The heart of a mother has gone with thee.

There is not a grand inspiring thought:
There is not a truth by wisdom taught;
There is not a feeling pure and high,
That may not be read in a mother's eye.

And ever since earth began, that look
Has been to the wise an open book,

To win them back from the love they prize,
To the holier love that edifies,

There are teachings on earth, in sky, in air:
The heavens the glory of God declare;
But more loud than the voice beneath, above,
He is heard to speak thro' a mother's love.
ANONYMOUS.

NEVER for one day forget, that the first book children read-nay, that which they continue to read, and by far the most influential-is that of their parents' example, and daily deportment.— If this should be disregarded by you, or even forgotten, then be not at all surprised when you find another day—to your sorrow and vexation, and the interruption of your business, if not the loss of all your domestic peace and harmony-that your children only know the right path, but still follow the wrong?' ANDERSON.

THE proper developement of the infant, requires powers and virtues, and an enlightened never-failing love, of which a parent only is capable. But a perverted education has rendered the generality of mothers equally insensible to the evils to which they expose their children, and to the humiliation of placing themselves under the direction of nurses and governesses; of allowing them to usurp the

post and fulfil the sacred duties which parents ought to consider as their inalienable right and their dearest privilege. This perverted education has robbed them of the fulness of happiness of their children; their home, their earthly paradise; of the blessedness, the internal blessedness, a mother should feel in unfolding the powers of the young immortals committed to her charge.

HINTS TO PARENTS.

As from the eyes of some individuals, and the tongues of others, there issues an evil influence; as between the vital spirits of friends and relatives there is a cognation, and they refresh each other like social plants, so in parents and their children there is so great a society of nature and of manners, of blessing and of cursing, that an evil parent cannot perish in a single death; neither can holy and consistent parents eat their meal of blessing alone; but they make the room shine like the fire of a holy sacrifice.

JEREMY TAYLOR.

THROUGHOUT all ages, in every nation, and in every stage of society, the period of life in which the moral and intellectual faculties begin to be developed, has been committed to female care.

In nations that are yet in the first stages of civilization, the duties of the mother are comprised within a narrow compass. She has only to cultivate the perceptions of her children, by increasing their senses of seeing, hearing, &c. and to excite in their hearts a few strong prejudices, which are to call certain passions into action. Her efforts being directed to the accomplishment of a certain end, are invariably crowned with success.

The same may be observed in nations pretending to civilization, but where all the powers of the human mind have been systematically crippled and degraded by bigotry and superstition. The task of the bigot mother is to form the character of a bigot; and in this task she succeeds, because she is capable of comprehending all that it requires. May we not thence infer, that where more enlightened views of human character prevail, a proportionate effect would be produced by education, were the object at which we aim previously ascertained? While our notions upon this subject are vague and indistinct, the course we pursue will be too desultory to lead to those