greater industry. If by human art the sun could be stopped a few hours in its daily course, so as to give us, every day, as once in the time of Joshua, thirty instead of fifteen hours for labor, the spirit of the age, in its devotion to Fashion, would soon find means to consume all this time on the wants of the perishing body, while the immortal mind and heart might go, as they are now compelled to do, unheeded and neglected.

We are christian in profession, but infidel in practice. We profess to live for the future, while in reality, we live for the present. We compliment knowledge and virtue, and their divine author, while our real sincere homage is rendered to animal pleasure. We talk of heaven, and of having our conversation and thoughts in it, while our affections are of the earth, earthy. We profess to worship God, but we love mammon. We are too much like those of whom it was once said by an inspired man-" whose God is their stomach."

The principles of education-the more important ones I mean-are few and simple. Still, to acquire them in such a manner as to render them useful to us in practice, is not by any means a small matter. It is easy to state some of them, in a work like this; but it is not easy so to state them that they may occupy the same place in other's

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minds that they do in our own, or have the same relative importance.

I may say, for example, that consistency is one of the great secrets in governing a child; that, however valuable modes or systems are, consistency is more so. But no reader can estimate this principle, as soon as she receives it, just as I do. She needs illustrations of my meaning, by examples of the application and misapplication of the principle; and for these she needs books, and observation, and even experience. And the same is true of any other principle I might advance.

The truth is, that the Creator, for reasons best known to himself, has not permitted us to transmit or receive the opinions, or even the recorded experience of each other entire, in such a way as to make it at once available. Our own minds, like the stomach in the reception of food, must act upon and digest the most enlightened and approved experience ere it becomes our own property. Hence the use of books, which, on the subject of education, should consist chiefly of experience rather than abstract principles; or in which to render them most useful, experience rather than theory should greatly predominate.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT.

Anecdote of Alcibiades. Intention of the Creator. Marriage of course a social state. Morning calls. Evening visits. Excitements. Balls and Theatres. Visiting in the afternoon. Social advantages of large families. Visiting by large companies. Topics of conversation. Scandal. Opposition of human nature to the gospel. Reading at social meetings. An important caution.

It is recorded of Alcibiades, that he had the art of conforming himself to the habits, tastes and opinions of whatever company he happened to be in; of "turning either to good or evil with the same facility and ardor, and shifting almost in an instant from one extreme to its opposite." Now what Alcibiades could do in a remarkable degree, almost every individual has the power of doing in a degree greater or less, according to circumstances. Nor is this all. The impression which is made by any company we are in is seldom entirely lost. However unconscious we may be of the fact, we are probably affected, more or less, by every social interview of life.

Nor is this susceptibility of impression to be regretted. The Creator probably intended it as a means of our improvement. It is true, we catch bad habits, manners and opinions, as well as those which are correct; but there is no necessity for this. We are permitted to choose our society. And it is on the wisdom of our choice, for ourselves and for our children, pupils and wards, that much of the good or evil of human society is made to depend. He will be wise—and happy, too-who associates with wise companions; but in the expressive language of the Bible, the companion of fools shall be destroyed.

If these views are correct-and it is presumed no one will doubt their correctness-then we may derive from them two important rules for human conduct. First, that it is our duty, in all the varied circumstances of life, to associate with our fellow creatures; and secondly, that it is our duty to be "wise as serpents in the selection of our

associates.

Of the manner in which children should associate, and of the pains which parents should take in selecting the companions of their sports, studies, &c., it is not my intention, at present, to speak, though they are of unquestionable importance, even to the young wife.

The circumstance of becoming a wife, ensures at least one important means of social improvement. She who has but one constant associate need not be a hermit. She may make much intellectual and moral progress by this means alone. But she need not and should not confine herself to a circle so narrow. She has relatives and neighbors; perhaps brethren and sisters in the church. These have their claims on her, and she has claims on them. The question at present will be, in what method or methods shall these claims be discharged.

1. Not by morning calls, as they are frequently denominated. I have a most unconquerable aversion to all sorts of "calls," as they are usually made in cities, and populous towns and villages. They seem so hollow and so useless, and such a waste of valuable time, that I wish the whole tribe of them could become extinct.

Morning calls, however, I regard as more objectionable than any other. The morning is the best time for labor, and study, and personal improvement; and some persons are so much accustomed to the good old way of spending the whole of the time before dinner in some one of these employments, that morning calls annoy them exceedingly. A few, it is true, will not suffer themselves to be annoyed in this way; and accordingly they refuse