the influence of passion. Let them remember the Heathen aphorism, ira furor brevis est. The remarks of Miss Edgeworth on this, as well as on every other branch of mechanical education, cannot be too much studied. In general, mothers are more severe towards their daughters, than towards their sons. As sons grow up, they should early be made the partakers of their parents' cares, business, occupation, and employments of every kind

The

The father stands to the unconscious little one as God; as the author of its existence; the giver, and preserver of its life. mother stands as the Church, which is the mother of us all, to whom the instruction in all godliness and righteousness of her lord's children is entrusted. Thus the parents' faith becomes in a great degree the faith of the child. "Say to yourself, although the extent of my dominion is the smallest upon earth, why is the authority given me the most extensive out of heaven? Within my own family, there is no one who can, none who should dispute this with me; and of

those around my dwelling from the highest authority in the state, to my next door neighbour, there is no one disposed to interfere. Above myself upon earth there is none; and to myself I sometimes feel as though in this matter, I were only next under God. True, as it regards mankind in general, whatever be your station, low or high, as parents unquestionably, you are next under Godwhose name is JEALOUS, and the FATHER OF MERCIES. A position more solemn than your's, as it regards relative duty, I confess I am unable to conceive."-Anderson.

High and ennobling dignity joined to an awful responsibility! In early times, and even down to the establishment of Christianity by Constantine, the father had power of life and death over his children, as well indeed as over all the other members of his family. And though this was undoubtedly in its results an evil, yet the existence of such a custom from the earliest antiquity, is an additional confirmation of the principle from which it arose.

Parents in the present day are greatly re

miss in not requiring from their children more formality and outward marks of respect. A very few years back, no child in a well ordered family, would have been allowed to remain seated, when a parent entered the room. "I am of opinion that parents let down their dignity, and undermine their authority, by allowing the same rude and boisterous behaviour in their presence, as in their absence. This should not be. When reason is expanding in children, they should be made to understand and feel the truth of what I have already affirmed, that there is an outward respect due to the very presence of a parent. All rude and noisy rushing in and out of a father's or mother's company is unmeet. It is the etiquette of our court that no one shall enter the royal presence, without obeisance; nor in retiring, turn his back upon the sovereign. I do not ask for the same obsequiousness in families, but I ask for the principle from which it arises, a respectful deference for authority."—James.

It

may be as well to mention here another duty which parents should inculcate on their

children, and which is fast going out of sight altogether, like every other worthy act, while religious people are overwhelmed in the vanity of thinking themselves more religious than their ancestors, and that is-deference to age. Each must judge by that which he himself has witnessed; in my childhood I was not only taught, but I was made to practice, to rise whenever an old person entered the room, and to attend to them until they had obtained the seat, or the book, or the paper, or whatever the object might be which they desired. I have known, and still know many worldly families, in which the children are so brought up; but I was never yet within the walls of a house, where the heads of the family made a profession of Evangelical religion, and I saw any more attention paid to the aged, than to other guests.

Parents should be very cautious respecting the companions of their children. Relations. ought not to be permitted to have free intercourse with children, unless they are educated in the same principles. This may be avoided without giving offence; but if not,

then offence must be given; for the first duty of parents is to their own offspring. As the children grow up, the males go forth into the world in their several callings, but the females remain until they are married, under the parents' roof, and consequently under the parental control. This control ought to be exercised with respect to those who have unrestricted intercourse with daughters, and a vigilant parent ought not to suppose that every female acquaintance is a companion devoid of danger to them. This vigilance is commonly supposed to be necessary only with respect to male companions; yet as far as my knowledge of the world goes, I believe the conversation of women, when men are not present, more detrimental to the purity of the female mind, than that of men. To furnish instances of this, would be to pollute these pages with matters very foreign to their main object; but it is at the instigation of some of the most refined ornaments of their sex, that this hint is thrown out for the consideration of parents.

Middleton, in his life of Cicero, remarks,