A deep repose, a silent harmony, Of nature and of man. The circling woods WONDERS OF CREATION. A CHILD cannot be accustomed too early, not only to use his eyes, but to make a right use of them. An intelligent parent, instead of checking the questions of the prattling girl or boy, as troublesome and noisy, will encourage those questions which evidently are put for the purpose of receiving information, and he will endeavour to answer them. We say endeavour, for such questions, though simple and natural generally, are at the same time often very ingenious. Whilst persons of graver years too often contemplate the wonders of the universe around them with unconscious gaze, and see nothing wonderful or curious in any object, children, to whom every thing is new on which they look, are constantly finding beauty, and variety, and wonder, in all they set their eyes on. Who would not, gladly, if they could, answer their interesting questions, and solve their little difficulties, and thus encourage the pleasure they so soon take in observing and enquiring? A leaf of a tree, a blade of grass, a pretty flower or plant, an insect, a stone, or even a feather, may be made the means of imparting much information and amusement to young persons. The children whose eyes and minds are thus beneficially directed and encouraged, instead of fretting and pouting, and having nothing to do, and feeling unhappy, and being a source of uneasiness to those around them, will, by and by, find entertainment and employment for themselves. The mind that is early encouraged and directed to the examination of natural objects, animate and inanimate, (living or without life,) is not only agreeably and healthfully occupied and amused, but begins soon to reason on the subject to collect and compare facts-to classify objects, as well as to investigate causes, and thus, step by step, be led, under judicious influence, truly "to look from nature up to nature's God." A child may thus be enabled to have a fellow-feeling with the Psalmist, when he exclaimed with rapture, in his holy admiration of the grandeur of creation, and skill, and power, and goodness of the Creator, "How manifold are thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches."-Anon. VENTILATION AND HOUSEHOLD CLEANLINESS. FEW persons are aware how very necessary a thorough ventilation is to the preservation of health. We preserve life without food for a considerable time, but keep us without air for a very few minutes and we cease to exist. It is not enough that we have air, we must have fresh air; for the principle by which life is supported is taken from the air during the act of breathing. By the care we take to shut out the external air from our houses, we prevent the escape of the deteriorated air, and condemn ourselves to breathe again and again the same contaminated unrefreshing atmosphere. Who that has ever felt the refreshing effects of the morning air can wonder at the lassitude and disease that follow the continued breathing of the pestiferous atmosphere of crowded or ill-ventilated apartments? It is only necessary to observe the countenances of those who inhabit close rooms and houses, the squalid hues of their skins, their sunken eyes, and their languid movements, to be sensible of the bad effects of shutting out the external air. Besides the contamination of the air from being breathed, there are other matters which tend to depreciate its purity; these are the effluvia constantly passing off from the surface of animal bodies, and the combustion of candles and other burning substances. On going into a bed-room in a morning, soon after the occupant has left his bed, though he be in perfect health, and habitually cleanly in his person, the sense of smelling never fails to be offended with the odour of animal effluvia with which the atmosphere is charged. If, under such circumstances, the air is vitiated, how much more inju riously must its quality be deteriorated, when several persons are confined to one room, where perhaps domestic affairs are going on, such as cooking and washing, where the windows are immoveable, and the door is never opened but while some one is passing through it! To keep the atmosphere of our houses free from contamination, it is not sufficient that we secure a frequent renewal of the air; all matters which can injure its purity must be carefully removed. The linen of beds should not be allowed to remain unchanged until it has lost all appearance of ever having been white, or of ever having had any acquaintance with the washing tub. The contents of chamber-vessels should not be left in the house an instant, if it be possible, and certainly not in the room of a sick person; every moment they remain they fill the air with a filthy odour, which is little less than poisonous to all who breathe it. Flowers in water and living plants in pots greatly injure the purity of the air during the night, by giving out large quantities of an air (carbonic acid) similar to that which is separated from the lungs by breathing, which is highly noxious. On this account they should never be kept in bedrooms. Fire-places in bedrooms should not be stopped up with chimney-boards. The windows should be thrown open for some hours every day, to carry off the animal effluvia, which are necessarily escaping from the bed-clothes, and which should be assisted in their escape by the bed being shaken up, and the clothes spread abroad, in which state they should remain as long as possible; this is the reverse of the usual practice of making bed, as it is called, in the morning, and tucking it up close, as if with the determination of preventing any purification from taking place. Attention to this direction, with regard to airing the bedclothes and bed after being slept in, is of the greatest importance to persons of weak health. In the country, there are other circumstances which require to be attended to besides cleanliness in the house, and the free admission of the air into it at all times Care ought to be taken that nothing be allowed to exist very near the house, that can injure the purity of, or produce humidity in, the atmosphere: heaps of putrefying vegetables, dunghills, pools, and ditches of stagnant water, and open drains, furnish a constant supply of the exhalations which produce fever. In hot seasons, especially, every breeze in such neighbourhoods must carry poison with it. These things are much too common before the doors of cottages, and even of larger houses. Those who build houses would do well to choose situations sufficiently elevated to allow the waste waters to be drained off with facility: without this, they must stagnate and putrefy, to the danger of the health of the inhabitants.-British Almanac. THE BUSTLING WAY AND THE QUIET WAY. THERE are some children who do very little good, even when they wish to be of assistance to others, because they make so much bustle about everything they undertake. Jane Riddell is one of these bustling characters. She is always ready and willing to help her mother, whom she loves very much, and to whom she is always obedient, but she makes so much noise and talk about any little thing she has to do, that one would rather do it ten times over, than be present while she is doing it. "Mother," said Jane, one morning when she sat reading, "Mother, mother!" calling several times before her mother had time to look up. Jane ought not to have interrupted her mother while she was reading, unless on some very important occasion, which in the present case it was not. "Mother, mother, I want to know whether I may go and put the back parlour to rights." "Yes, yes, you may,” said her mother, going on with her reading. "Well,-mother, mother!" "What now, Jane ?" "May I take down all the books from the shelves, and put them up better? I know I can put them up right again. May I, mother?" "Yes, you may; but do not talk to me now, because I am engaged." Jane went to work, making a great noise in taking down and putting up the books. Instead of clearing one shelf at a time, and filling each one before she cleared the next, she took down all the books at once, and as she stood on a chair to replace them, she must needs jump down for each parcel, as she set them up again. “Ôh, Jane,” her mother would now and then exclaim, as the volumes came tumbling upon the floor, "do be a little more careful, and try to make less noise.” But for Jane to have carried on any operation without making a great fuss, or occasioning interruption to other persons, would have been quite out of the question. "There, mother, just come and see how much better that looks," she would say, each time she had filled a shelf. If her mother did not attend at once, she would go on calling "mother, mother," until at last becoming quite tired of being interrupted, her mother bade her leave the room as it was, and sit down to her sewing. Jane felt mortified and grieved at the reproof thus conveyed, and could scarcely repress her tears, as she prepared to obey the direction. "Why, what is the matter, Jane?" said her mother, laying down her book, and perceiving Jane's sorrowful looks. This question brought the tears at once into Jane's eyes. "Why, mother," she answered, "I was putting the book-shelves to rights as well as I could, when you spoke to me, and—and, I was going". "Well, you did them very well, and I should have been glad you had finished them, but you made so much bustle about it, and talked so much, that I could not go on with my reading. I have never spoken to you particularly about this fault, but it is one that you can easily overcome. You are a very lively, active, little girl; I should be sorry you were indolent and dull; but when you have anything to do, I wish you to do it with as little noise and bustle as possible. Now, I will show you the difference between the bustling and the quiet way of doing things. Let me see what shall I do? Oh! there is the hearth-rug which is out of order." One edge of the rug was turned under, and Jane's mother walked to the fire-place, stooped down to the rug, and, with one or two strokes of her hand, spread it even, and smoothed out the fringe. "There, that is the quiet way of doing the thing; now I will show you the bustling way." Her -- |