with less fear out into the world, than if all participating had been forbidden and all indulgence considered vile.

As mingling pleasure and a healthful exercise, I mention dancing as an evening amusement of the home. I do not simply mean that it should be confined to the members of home, because there are few homes where there are enough to make this possible; but my meaning is, that it should be rather the informal thing in our homes, than the costly and foolish thing it is made elsewhere. It is the adjuncts of dancing, rather than the dancing itself, which seem to me objectionable. What could be more wise in a parent, what could give more genuine pleasure, than to invite in a few of the young friends of the household for a couple of hours of rational dancing, without expense, without dress, without any thing to eat? I marvel that parents who say a good deal about the style of parties to which their children go, who seem to be alive to the very objectionable things connected with public and private assemblies, do not take the initiative in some movement of this sort. Far better than fretting at your children for doing as others do, or running a useless tilt against the fashion of the day, is it to fling open the doors of your house, and take in under the protection of the safeguards of home those whom you are voluntarily exposing to hazards

of health and character. It will be some trouble, it is true; but what right have you to weigh that against the good of your children? The expense, the late eating, the late hours, the absurdities of dress, the dangerous excitement of polka and waltz, the envy which always comes of elaborate displays, the hard feelings, the waste of days before and after, which are the really objectionable things, may in this way be obviated. The improprieties which creep in in a crowd, or where there is no home restraint, would thus be impossible. There could be nothing but what the parent would sanction, or might easily check.

I know this will not suit young people altogether. The glare, the glitter, the excitement things they have not yet analyzed, things just varnishing over real and mighty dangers-are the attractive things, and they consider simple dancing a very tame affair. But I am speaking of things I know something about. Mine is neither the prejudiced ground of a recluse, nor the partial ground of a bigot. I have had a large experience in these things. I know the world from mingling in it, and I know where the danger lies. If fathers and mothers knew what they were about, if they would use a discretion which should least desert them here, they would provide at home for their sons and daughters that pleasure which is pure and true, and free from every meretricious alloy.

And why not have in your homes reading-clubs, sewing-circles, the acting of charades, and private theatricals? Why not settle it with yourselves at once that the young people will and must have amusements, and take it upon yourselves to furnish in proper proportion and variety such as are not objectionable? The whole thing lies in your own hands. You deny these at your peril. What you do not grant, in some way they will get. You throw them on the world at their peril. What do you know of what goes on, or what undesirable acquaintanceship may be formed, at a public hall? Take amusements into your houses, be one with your children in them, and if they are not satisfied it will prove to you that have not made the change any too soon. Quiet home amusements will lead to proper social ones, and will form a taste averse to those which are improper.

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A single word more. I am convinced that we do not make enough of the child-relish for listening to conversation. If a neighbor or friend comes in, we are apt to think the child must go out. And yet a wide-awake child will sit all the evening, drinking in at eye and ear the intelligent talk of the elders. Not merely is it a wise and gentle mental stimulus, not merely may it instruct, or introduce to new knowledge, or provoke inquiry, but it draws out the heart toward the elder, establishes a much-needed, much

overlooked sympathy. The child looks out beyond its own thought and life, feels itself admitted into the high places of other men's experience, comes to have a personal interest, property, in its father's or its mother's friend. Ah! how many in this world there are, the echo of whose voices, once familiar about the home-hearth, friends of the dear ones gone, linger still, twined inseparably with old home memories! Let the children stay and hear the talk, and do you talk wisely for their profit and blessing!

There was in the days of my boyhood a book called "Evenings at Home;" and there was in the days of my boyhood a thing called "Evenings at Home." I miss them both now; and society, which thinks it has grown so wise, has lost two things which did much toward making the men and women of to-day. Too much the old spend the evening from home, in stores, in clubs, in secret societies, in concerts, and in theatres and balls. Too many things have been devised away from home, which draw the men away, and make them associate exclusively with themselves. Our young people follow where the elders lead. I may be unfortunate, but it is very rarely that I find a young man at home with the family in my evening calls. With both sexes there is a restless craving for outside amusement, as if the evening were for nothing else. I have desired simply to hint at that wealth of

occupation, improvement, happiness, which there is in our own homes, which it lies with parents to evoke and recommend, neglecting which they have recklessly thrown their children into contact with evils against which they are neither forewarned or forearmed. God placed the inexperienced soul within a home, that about its inexperience a father's and a mother's love might throw their protection. For watch and ward were they set over it. And God made the day for labor, and the night for rest; but where these joined when the one was ended ere the other begun - His dear love interposed a precious neutral season, and sanctified it to the hallowing associations and influences of home. Let us feel God's command upon us in this precious season; let us neglect neither its responsibility nor its privilege. Let us trim anew the flame of the evening lamp, let us draw in closer circle round the evening table, and let the joy of our present and the blessing of our future come from the holy and happy EVENINGS AT HOME!

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