stitution, is the means of instructing the laborers and learners in branches of industry that will enable them to provide for themselves. Music in every age has been the chief delight and principal pursuit of the blind, and owing to the extreme refinement of their auditory powers, it perhaps affords them higher gratification than any other class of mankind. This science is here taught to great perfection. Almost every instrument of modern use has been introduced, and great proficiency in performance has been attained by students, especially on the piano forte and organ. The vocal department of music has also received efficient attention. In acquiring a knowledge of this branch, but little inconvenience is realized by the pupil from his loss of sight. After receiving a thorough knowledge of its rudiments, all the assistance he requires is the reading of the music until committed to memory, which practice greatly facilitates.

In all the varied exercises and duties of this institution, and the perplexing incidents invariably attending a student's life, Miss Giles sustained herself with commendable ability. In 1841, she bade adieu to the institute, her teachers, and kind benefactors, and returned to her friends in Michigan, with a more exalted and rational idea of life and happiness. We need not the feeling eloquence of a Milton to paint out before the public mind the utility of such institu tions for this class of community; we need only ad vert to the child as it enters the school, borne down

with a sense of blindness, and witness the changed condition of the graduate student in the honorable walks of life; happy as if unmindful of the want of sight, his soul filled with the thought that he can always find in labor, support, and in reading, amusement, without painfully depending on the eyesight of others, while in writing he has his circle of communication enlarged until it embraces the world.

When Miss Giles wrote her first poems, it appears to have been far from her intention to present herself before the public in the capacity of an authoress. They were the result of her solitary musings on heavenly themes, while in a measure secluded from society, and were written down for the gratification of those few friends with whom she was daily conversant. Several of these found their way into the public journals, and the favorable notice they attracted induced her to publish from her portfolio a small volume. The approving smile with which an indulgent public received this laudable effort for selfmaintenance, and the essential pecuniary aid realized from its sale, induced her more extensively to employ her pen.

Three years subsequent, in 1848, her second work made its appearance, entitled "Female Influence; and her third publication, entitled "Balm of Gilead,” was issued from the press in 1852. Much might be Justly said in praise of the chaste, poetic, and highly descriptive style of these productions; but it is not our purpose, in the present work, to bias the minds

of our readers in favor of the authors we notice with an elaborate review, but prefer to give a few select

extracts.

We copy the following essay on intellectual development from her work entitled "Female Influence," chapter seventh :

"What a striking resemblance there is between a well cultivated garden and the immortal mind! What a living picture is here of the beneficial effects of industry! By industry and cultivation this neat spot is an image of Eden. Here is all that can entertain the eye or regale the smell. Whereas, without cultivation, this sweet garden had been a desolate wilderness. Vile thistles had made it loathsome, and tangling briars inaccessible. Without cultivation, it might have been a nest for serpents, and the horrid haunt of venomous creatures. But the spade and pruning knife, in the hand of industry, have improved it into a sort of terrestrial paradise. How naturally does it lead us to contemplate the advantages which flow from a virtuous education, and the miseries which ensue from the neglect of it! The mind, without early instruction, will, in all probability, become like the 'vineyard of the sluggard,' if left to the propensities of its own depraved will; what can we expect but the luxuriant growth of unruly appetites, which, in time, will break forth in all manner of irregularities? What but that anger, like a prickly thorn, arms the tempter with an untractable moroseness; peevishness, like a stinging nettle, ren

der the conversation irksome and forbidding; avarice, like some choking weed, teach the fingers to gripe, and the hands to oppress; revenge, like some poisonous plant, replete with baneful juices, rankle in the breast, and meditate mischief to its neighbor; while unbridled lusts, like swarms of noisome insects, taint each rising thought, and render 'every imagination of the heart only evil continually?' Such are the usual products of savage nature; such the furniture of the uncultivated soul!

"Whereas, let the mind be put under the 'nurture and admonition of the Lord;' let holy discipline clear the soil: let sacred instruction sow it with the best seed: let skill and vigilance dress the rising shoots, direct the young idea how to spread, the wayvard passions how to move; then what a different tate of the inner man will take place! Charity will breathe her sweets, and hope expand her blossoms; the personal virtues display their graces, and the social ones their fruits; the sentiments become generous, the carriage endearing, the life honorable and useful.

"Oh! that governors of families and masters of schools would watch, with a conscientious solicitude, over the morals of their tender charges. What a pity it is, that the advancing generation should lose these invaluable endowments, through any supineness in their instructors. See, with what assiduity the curious florist attends his little nursery! He visits them early and late, furnishes them with the properest

mould; supplies them with seasonable moisture; guards them from the ravages of insects; screens them from the injuries of the weather; marks their springing buds; observes them attentively through their whole progress; and never intermits his anxiety until he beholds them blown into full perfection. And shall a range of painted leaves, which flourish to-day and to-morrow fall to the ground-shall these be tended with more zealous application than the exalted faculties of an immortal soul?

"Yet, trust not in cultivation alone. It is the blessing of the Almighty Husbandman which imparts success to such labors of love. If God 'seal up the bottles of heaven,' and command the clouds. to withhold their fatness, the best manured plat becomes a barren desert. And if he restrain the dew of his heavenly benediction, all human endeavors miscarry; the rational plantation languishes; our most pregnant hopes, from youths of the most prom. ising genius, prove abortive. Their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will go up as dust. Therefore, let parents plant; let tutors water; but let both look up to the Father of spirits for the desired increase. On every side I espy several budding flowers.

"As yet, they are like bales of cloth from the packer's ware-house, each is wrapped within a strong enclosure, and its contents are tied together by the firmest bandages; so that all their beauties lie concealed,