Doth she not sooth us, sick; enrich us, poor, CRABBE. I HAVE always much pleasure in watching the unwearying and indefatigable exertions of swallows, wag-tails, and other insectivorous birds, in providing food for their young. Were it not for the affection parents feel for their offspring, the present sources of happiness, as regards the human as well as the animal species, would be annihilated. In order to keep alive this feeling, two most powerful motives have been implanted in females. I mean those of love and pity. No sooner is the feeble and plaintive cry of distress of their young heard by the parent, than these two incentives are immediately called into action. Pity prompts the female to afford the necessary relief, and love renders the task, however arduous, a pleasurable one. I never think of this interesting fact, without admiring that law of nature, or rather of a beneficent Creator, who has thus provided for the wants of the young in their most helpless state, and thrown the shield of affection over them. What perseverance, anxiety and courage are shewn by the parent in providing for, and defending her young, and at the same time what an absence of all selfishness! When they are in danger, the most fearful female becomes the bravest. Affection then appears in its strongest light. We may see a feeble bird, a timid quadruped, a little insect, sacrifice even life itself in defence of its young. Let us view a mother watching over a sick and helpless child which requires all her care and attention. How delightfully has Providence smoothed the path of the parent in this case. Instead of anxiety, fatigue and constant watching and attention becoming insupportable or irksome, we find that affection overcomes every difficulty, and that parental care is bestowed with cheerfulness and pleasure. It is pleasant to reflect on the perfection of the female character-to indulge in the remembrance of having seen women perform those offices of affection and love, which they alone are capable of shewing. If we refer to the Bible, how delightfully are their best attributes there portrayed, and how conspicuous are they for the warmest and kindliest feelings. It was a woman who watched over her little brother when he was hidden in the bull-rushes.-It was a woman who urged her father to perform his vow, although her own life might be the sacrifice. It was a woman who so beautifully said, "all was well,” when she came to implore the prophet to restore her dead and only son.-It was a woman who followed her mother-in-law in all her distress and poverty. It was a woman who offered her last mite in charity. It was a woman who washed our blessed Saviour's feet with her tears, and afterwards wiped them with the hair of her head. It was a woman who said, "Lord, if thou had'st been here, my brother had not died."—It was a woman who stood at the foot of the cross.- -It was a woman who went first to the sepulchre.It was to a woman our Lord first made himself known after his resurrection; and, it was not a woman who betrayed our Lord and master. Charming, however, as the female character may be, it possesses another quality which has not yet been referred to. I allude to that extraordinary tenderness and affection, which a mother generally shews to a deformed, diseased, or idiotic child. That this feeling has been implanted in her by a merciful Creator for a benevolent purpose cannot, I think, be doubted, nor can I imagine any being more wretched than one, in any of the conditions I have mentioned, deserted by its mother, and deprived of her tenderness and care. Even some animals shew the same affection under almost similar circumstances. I have watched a little feeble bird on a lawn, which some accident or disorder has rendered weaker than the other nestlings, receiving the constant attentions of its mother, who hovered near it, and evidently brought food to it oftener than she did to her other young ones. I have noticed the same in a weakly fawn. When I resided on the border of Bushy Park, I had many opportunities of observing this, and other instances of the great affection which exists between a doe and her fawn. The latter when very young, hides itself amongst the fern, but on hearing the peculiar bleat of the dam, recognized from amongst many others, it quits its retreat, and is in an instant by her side. A scene of mutual affection then takes place. The fawn rubs its head against the shoulder of its mother. The mother licks the fawn, then satisfies its hunger, and turns round and looks at it with an affection which cannot be mistaken. Throughout nearly the whole of the animal creation, the care of rearing, feeding and protecting the young devolves on the female. She it is who hatches the young brood, and fosters them under her wings. In some cases, her indefatigable exertions procure the necessary supply of food. In others her milk nourishes them; but the same love and affection is to be found in all. The Whale, amidst its agonies of pain and death, is said to attend to her young one with the utmost anxiety to the last moment of her life. If the young whale has been wounded by the harpoon, after the mother has eluded it, the latter then becomes an easy prey to the whalers, as it is well known that nothing will induce her to desert her offspring: so strong is female affection. I am furnished with another instance of this in my immediate neighbourhood. A number of school-boys, attended by their master, were wandering about the Great Park of Windsor, when one of them discovered a Black-bird's nest, with young ones in it, at some distance beyond the top of the Long Walk. He immediately made prize of it, and was conveying it homewards, when the cries of their young were heard by the old birds. Notwithstanding the presence and noise of so many boys, they did not desert their helpless offspring, but kept near them, for a distance of about three miles, flying from tree to tree, and uttering those distressed and wailing notes which are so peculiar in the black-bird. This circumstance induced the boy to place the young birds in a cage, and he hung it outside of the house, which was close to the town of Windsor. Here they were fed regularly by their parents. As they grew up, the boy sold first one and then another, as he was able to procure customers for them, until |