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the fires of her life rekindle as she beholds the merry sports and gambols of her darlings! The bloom upon their rosy cheeks, and the light of their sunny glances, bring back the lustre to her own eyes, and the unaccustomed blood to her wan face. In an hour like this she tastes of happiness, and surely no married flirt, no gay, worldly-minded woman ever experienced in quaffing the chalices of adulation offered to her vanity, such pure ethereal joy, as that which fills the true mother's heart in beholding the innocent gladness of her offspring. Their delight is to her as a well of refreshment in the valley of her pilgrimage. Her force of will is invoked that she may govern them; and her sweetest pity that she may pardon; a quick and tender conscience is required for the delicacy and responsibility of her trust. Faith is needed, for she guides the footsteps of heirs of immortality. Her work should ripen in her confidence in the germs of goodness which she plants in the soil of her children's nature, in the care with which she tends it, in the spiritual ministry which shall guard it, and in the eternal providence which ensures the fruit of her labor. God stations the mother by the cradle and bids her yield her hand to guide the uncertain steps of childhood, that man's earliest years may have the presidency and control of one apt to teach, able to direct, and competent to bless him. The mother is called to a life of self-sacrifice, and is not

this the true notion of life, embodying the highest conception of character? The greatest the world has known, whom men have taken for their teacher hath said, "He that would be great among you let him be the servant of all." Home-life is a toilsome but a benignant ministry; the highest requital of its service is in the character which is gained by its blessed labor.

Who does not feel and know, that the divinest agency and force with which we are made acquainted, is character? A perfectly educated will, calms, controls, and directs others. It is higher than intellect, or any form of genius. It blends the strength of Feeling, with the serenity of Reason. It is harmony of nature, wherein the creature's will is subject to the Creator's, after tumultuous striving and long-continued endeavor. It is the one only thing we carry with us to the future. As it is, shall we be-blessed or accursed. Therefore have I called it the true end, and divine power of human life, and said, that the most admirable lot for its acquisition and culture is the home-life of woman.

In these three provinces, then,-literature, society, and home—is her true sphere; here may her influence be exercised, and trophies and rewards, peerless and lasting as the soul itself, be won. By her books, conversation, manners and example, may she instruct and minister. As the world grows wiser

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and better, we shall see these truths more clearly, and feel them more deeply; woman's place will become more distinctly defined, her influence more fully recognized and increasingly more potent.

In conclusion, it may be allowed me to offer a hint or two, as worthy and weighty subjects for thought, to every enlightened and conscientious woman in the country.

Our girls leave school and enter society at too early an age. The mischief resulting therefrom is incalculable. To this is it owing, in part, that we have so few well-educated women; so many precipitate and ill-assorted marriages, so much discontent and unhappiness in after life. Let it be recollected that most of our young women are "finished" by the time they are seventeen, and then tell me what familiarity with study, what real discipline of mind, they can have acquired. They need and should have a thorough classical and scientific training, and to this end should be kept at school, or supplied with masters, until they are twenty at least. Out of New England the women know nothing of science, and very little of classical learning, and even there, those who do, constitute the exceptions. I have heard it bitterly complained that the men who draw up the courses of study for our highest schools assign so narrow a limit to the curiosity and capacity of the female, and one so much wider to the male scholars. How is it pos

sible to do otherwise when these programmes have to be prepared to suit our exigencies, in which the young lady is to leave school the moment she is prepared to study? Is it surprising that the course should be meagre and inadequate, when the girl's head is full of beaux and parties, from the time she puts on long dresses, and is allowed to act upon the assumption, that she is competent to take upon herself the most awful responsibilities of human life, before she is out of her teens? I pronounce the opinion after not a little careful inquiry and reflection, that the greater number of fashionable boarding-schools among us are as pernicious and baneful institutions as any nourished by our over-stimulated civilization. Let us have as provision for the education of the future wives and mothers of the Republic, a more comprehensive course of instruction; fewer "accomplishments as they are called-apparently in derision; and more earnest patient study, and a drill as systematic and thorough as any now prescribed for boys.

My other suggestion is in the form of an appeal to my country women to cultivate simplicity of life, taste, and manners. Renounce ostentatious display, extravagant expenditure; abjure the outré, monstrous styles of dress in vogue. Study the colours and fashion most becoming to yourself, and dare to follow the dictates of a refined taste in apparel. Refuse a servile compliance with the reigning mode, Strivo

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to keep your children young, and thus secure yourself against the advance of age. In ornamentation seek beauty rather than splendor, and in the decoration of your house, select articles for the excellence of their form and color, and the harmony of their oroportions, rather than for their showy costliness. Enough money is spent on expensive carpets in New York houses to foster a national school of art, and yet most of our painters and sculptors are living in poverty. Throw around your children every influence that will soften and refine their nature. If paintings and marbles are too expensive, engravings and plaster are within the reach of all. Tolerate no license of manners, no rudeness of speech towards yourself, or in your presence. Let your self-respect be so strong that others will be forced to respect you. Suffer not the tongue of scandal, nor the voice of tattle, and mischief-making, in your hearing. Defend your children as far as you are able from the pestiferous passion for fine dress, and glittering display. Save yourself and them from hollow and vulgar pretension, and give us an example of cheerfulness under toil, of fortitude amid trial, and of contentment united with diligence and effort.

I have had occasion in these remarks to speak plainly; at times, perhaps sternly. At parting it is only fair that I should use words of different tone. It is usual for our countrymen returned