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DEEPLY interesting and soul-absorbing as the formation of your children's characters is to you, you are in danger of feeling an excess of anxiety, which, by making you really unhappy, may do much to defeat its own object. We wish to see our children good and happy. We tell them that to be good, is the way to be happy. But will they be likely to be impressed with this truth if they see our brow contracted by care, or our cheeks frequently suffused with tears? Far be it from a mother to feel that spirit of indifference, which would enable her to look with 'equal eye' on virtue and vice in her children. But let her trust them in his hand who is Love itself, and endeavor to acquire that peaceful state of mind, which will always be accompanied by serenity of countenance and kindness of manner. Were we to inquire what makes home most happy, we should unhesitatingly answer, the good and amiable dispositions cherished there; and so great is the influence of example, that where parents are exemplary in these respects, the same spirit will, in a greater or less degree, diffuse itself through the family circle. And let not a father, who meets the storms of life, and the many vexations incident to business, think his home the place where to vent the irritable feelings which politeness obliges him to restrain when abroad. If possible, let him 'forget his cares awhile,' join in cheerful conversation, and endeavor both to receive and to commu

nicate pleasure. Would he know the secret of being calm amid all the sad reverses to which men of business are liable? Let him first learn not to set too high a value on riches; or once indulge the thought that true happiness may not be enjoyed without them. Let him trust with unshaken confidence in the care of our heavenly Father. The repose and peace of mind inspired by these sentiments, will light up the good man's face with a smile, and give an air of benignity to his whole behavior.

That home should be the seat of happiness, it is by no means necessary that it be the abode of luxury and indulgence; but the abode of virtue and piety it must be. Early teach your children those principles of justice, which will secure them from all temptation to dishonesty in future life. In all their intercourse with each other, see that the strictest honesty is observed, and do not fail to notice with pointed severity the slightest deviations from rectitude.

Teach them self-government. Show them the elevation, the purity, the true enjoyment of a mind governed by principle, contrasted with the degradation, self-reproach and misery of the slave of appetite.

Teach them to bear the ills of life with fortitude. Daughters as well as sons should be taught to bear with composure those evils, which may be allotted them in their progress through life. A person of elevated principles and enlarged views, will preserve his mind in composure, amid a thousand perplexing incidents which agitate minds less wisely balanced. Still, many things will occur in the lives of most of us, calculated to excite, even to agony, the tenderest and best feelings our nature. Some sudden bereavement, or appalling accident, may bring down all our wordly hopes at a blow, and make us feel as nothing else can, our utter impotence and helplessness. Desolate in ourselves, at such a moment, we fly to the arm of Omnipotence to save. Happy, indeed, if an approving conscience and inward peace, tell us that that Arm will be exerted in our favor; but most wretched if a sense of unrepented sin destroy our confidence and fill us with consternation. Pious resignation to the will of God, and humble hope of pardon through Jesus Christ, can alone prepare the mind for every event, however painful. Here

human fortitude fails. Let us own our weakness and trust in divine strength.

In proportion as we believe Christianity to be the only remedy

for all the ills of life, in that proportion shall we desire it for our children. Whatever else we may wish them to possess, or rejoice to see them acquire, we shall never rest satisfied till we see them Christians; not in name only but in heart. That parent who is so happy as to see his children obeying the pure precepts of Christ, whatever may be his station, is more an object of envy, and far happier than a king, surrounded with all earthly splendor, yet for himself, and those most dear to him, looking forward with dim and dark uncertainty to a future life. Let no one suppose that the enjoyment of the holy and elevated hopes of religion unfits the mind for the innocent pleasures of this life; on the contrary, the peace of conscience and purity of heart which they produce, render the soul more highly susceptible to every rational and innocent enjoyment.

And how wide has the circle of these enjoyments been made by the hand of infinite beneficence. Every bodily sense and every mental capacity, is the source or the inlet of pleasure. Early, therefore, should the perceptions of children be awakened to the numerous objects of interest and beauty around them. Open to them the sources of intellectual improvement. Lead them in the paths of knowledge. Remove the obstructions, and, as far as possible, strew with flowers the way up the hill of science. Who can so patiently, so pleasantly, bear with the weakness and inaptness and even perverseness of children as their parents? Let the recollection of what your parents bore for you, influence you to bear with untiring condescension and kindness, all that a determined teacher must bear, who will never rest satisfied with anything short of his pupil's advancement. When once the love of knowledge has become deeply rooted in the minds of youth, an inexhaustible fund of entertainment and instruction is opened to them, which they will feel little desire to leave, in search of the low pleasures of vicious indulgence. Imbue, then, the minds of your children with knowledge, and let subjects of science be familiarly and naturally introduced at your table and your fire-side.

Next to the acquisition of knowledge, the cultivation of taste may claim the attention of a wise parent. The perception of the beautiful, the grand, the harmonious, is the gift of the Creator, in a greater or less degree, perhaps, to every individual of the human family; but it is as much increased by cultivation as any other faculty of the mind. That the savages who roam the Western for

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