CONCLUSION.

"Our babes shall richest comforts bring;
If tutor❜'d right, they'll prove a spring
Whence pleasures ever rise:

We'll form their minds with studious care
To all that's manly, good, and fair,

And train them for the skies.

While they our wisest hours engage,
They'll joy our youth, support our age,

And crown our hoary hairs:

They'll grow in virtue every day,
And thus our fondest loves repay,
And recompense our cares.”

COTTON.

IT has been attempted in the preceding pages to suggest some hints for the promotion of domestic happiness; those which remain shall be occupied in pointing out that upon which alone any reasonable hope of success can be founded-namely, early discipline.

Parents and children naturally expect to derive mutual comfort from those intimate relations; but wishes and expectations are fruitless without corresponding exertions, and even exertions may prove ineffectual if delayed beyond their proper season. Were parents sufficiently convinced of this, what happy effects would result to society in general, as well as to their own immediate circle! It is in the nursery that their operations must first commence, if they would look forward to distant years, with any reasonable hope of deriving comfort from the society of their grown-up children.

It may be objected that many bright examples might be produced, to prove that excellence of character does not always depend on early education; and on the contrary, that some undutiful, and even profligate children have been in these respects highly favoured: but such instances are only exceptions; without which there is no general rule; and such exceptions (those especially of the latter class) are very rare. Let the assertion then sink deep into the heart of every parent. The foundation stone of public

and private felicity should be laid in the nursery, not by the mercenary services of ignorant domestics, but by the skilful hand of the intelligent christian mother. In that insignificant chamber, bestrewed with fragments of toys and glittering baubles, the scene of frolic and gambol, resounding with the tones of infantile mirth and woe,—the future happiness or misery of the fire-side below is (if we may be allowed the expression) manufactured, which may spread from thence far and wide. It is here that filial respect, filial affection, with all their accompanying virtues, although small at first as a grain of mustardseed, begin to spring: the twigs shoot forth, the blossoms appear, delicious fruits ripen on the boughs, and, harbouring every tuneful songster, from thence shall issue many a melodious strain. It is here that humility and self-denial first break the stubborn soil, and expand their tender foliage like the snowdrop and violet, those welcome flowers of spring. Here with needful culture, prudence, and discretion, and benevolence display the promising bud, while the assiduous and skilful hand will clear from the ground every

noxious weed which would retard or destroy their growth. And here especially, as the grand source of all, should be first sown the good seed of the word, which if dressed and watered by the prayers and tears of a pious parent, may even here spring up and bear its early fruit. On this interesting spot are often planted the thorns which protrude from a parent's dying pillow, or the sweet flowerets which bestrew it.

What a comprehensive term is domestic happiness! It includes the important present-it involves the future to an indefinite extent to generations yet unborn its benign influence extends, beyond the reach of calculation.

"If solid happiness we prize,
Within our breast this jewel lies;

And they are fools who roam:
The world has nothing to bestow;
From our own selves our joys must flow,

And that dear hut our home."

If it would not warrant the philanthropist to devote the best of his time, his talents, his exertions to the grand object within the limits of his own walls, it might justify her

in so doing whose peculiar province it is. While other things are not neglected, let home duties be the primary concern with her. Could the writer of these humble pages have as many years added to her life as she has already counted, this important subject, whenever she ventured to address her sex, would still constitute the essence of her counsel.

Let not the above sentiments, however, be supposed to intimate that the prior duties of the wife and mother are to seclude her entirely from all intercourse with the world, or exclude those of a more diffusive benevolence. On the latter subject there are two opposite errors, against which the mistresses of families should carefully guard. While some from a love of going abroad, of public assemblies, of bustle, of any thing but staying at home (and it is hoped from some mixture of better motives), are ever to be seen on all those occasions, which the present state of the religious world renders so frequent; others from the pressure of private cares and family duties, would excuse themselves not only from personal activity, but from taking any interest in the good works that are going