VOL. VI.-JULY, 1855.-No. VII. SISTERS IN THE FAMILY. THIRD ARTICLE. BY THE EDITOR. WE have said in a previous number that the mind must be cultivated in order to bring out fully the true spirit and character of a sister, and fit her for her sphere. The influence of mind is compared to light. To have a cultivated mind is to be enlightened. It is intelligence that gives definiteness and clearness to thoughts and actions. In the natural world light reveals the nature of objects, and their relations to each other; it enables us to judge of them, and to act properly in reference to them. Without light a great part of the world would not exist for us-afford us neither advantage nor pleasure; and objects would possess neither beauty nor power of reflection. It is light that gives to gems their glory, to grass its beautiful green, to the sky its hues, and to flowers their delicate and varied colorings. What light is to the world without us, that is intelligence to the world within us. It gives to all the faculties of the mind enlargement and polish-to all the affections of the heart beauty and to all the actions of the body grace. It gives dignity to the brow, light to the eye, and life to the countenance. How important, therefore, is this element in the formation of the female character. It inspires reverence, confidence, and respect. It gives dignity to actions. It begets that prudence and wisdom without which there is but very little true influence. It is easy to see how necessary all these things are to one who would fill properly the position, and sustain the relations of a sister in the family. Especially powerful and beautiful is intelligence when it has its ground and root and life in piety-when the light of intelligence is a holy light, giving new ornament to modesty, humility, meekness and piety. The true sisterly character is not complete without an education of the social nature-the manners. This is intimately connected with the heart and the mind. Those things in which piety manifests itself we call the graces-the outward manner of piety. VOL. VI.-13 Those things in which mind externalizes itself we call cultivation, refinement, polish. True social cultivation always presupposes religion and intelligence. There is a social polish which is produced by mere outward influences, a mere repression and regulation of the outward being. This is a false social cultivation. True manners, like true piety and intelligence must spring from within. It must not be formal and fashionable, but living, free, and natural. It must not be the forced and cramped production of rules, but the outflow of lifethe natural exhibition of inward grace. A true, intelligent Christian needs no instruction in regard to manners. Grace itself is the highest politeness-piety the best regulator of social intercourse. The sociality of a sister must have the domestic or home-element. Social life, like the rose whose inner petals are most delicate and loveliest, must unfold itself with greatest perfection, in the inner, smaller circles of social life. They do not love abroad who do not love first at home. The very fact that God's order makes it necessary for our affections, in their forming period, to unfold in the family, proves that the home-element is to be their first and their deepest clement. Only in proportion as the home feeling pervades a sister's heart has she influence in the family and over the hearts of brothers. Not with any feat of social skill abroad do we love to associate a sister's memory, but with the sober, steady sunshine of joy and love at home. A sister that shows fondness for vain and giddy display can never hold a sweet and lasting influence over a brother's heart. The light accomplishments of the ball-room he will despise in proportion as he grows earnest and grave. In temptation her airy image, hovering as in the maze of the dance around him, will be no angel touch, or angel whisper to give strength and courage to his soul. In trouble he will feel resort to a sister's sympathy and love, but how then can that airy image of vanity be welcome to him? He will despise it in proportion as his own earnest sorrow differs from the remembrance of her folly. When he remembers her as he sojourns among strangers the very recollection of her light-heartedness will cause her in his own mind to stand apart from all fit sympathy with the plaintiveness of his lonely heart. In all these circumstances, to be welcome, a sister's form and image must come up in memory, not like a gilded butterfly, a wayward plaything of the air, but mild, earnest, and solemnly tender, like the form and face of an angel-coming bright and cheerful in the joy of her message, but at the same time bearing the holy solemnity of that whence the message comes. The recollection of anything light and foolish in the past is always unpleasant and repulsive, in others, as in ourselves. No child can stand on the grave of a mother and think with pleasure of her as a dancing mother. Nor can a sister be so remembered without pain either when she is dead, or when the brother whose thoughts would turn to her is in sorrow. What appears in the past must be serious or earnest, or we hate it. Not so must a sister dwell in a brother's heart. That is the true expression of a brother's heart which speaks to a sister thus: Yes, dear one, to the envied train To think of him that's far away? But not in fashion's brilliant hall, O think not, think not of me there; And thou art sad, remember me. See, then, the model of a sister. She is pious-from her shines out a holy light. She is intelligent-adorned with the materials of wisdom. She is social-rich in all the graces of domestic love. Happy are they who have courage and grace necessary to become all this. If this is your high and holy aim in all your thoughts and studies and prayers, then happy are those around your hearth and home who call you sister. EVENING HYMN. THE shades of night around are cast, Upon a sinful world. Hear, gracious God! O hear my prayer, And keep me from the tempter's snare, Oh God! whate'er of wrong I've done Upon Thy care to live All wicked words I may have said— And died for me, on Calvary, I pray Thee to forgive. ROGER SHERMAN. “The self-taught Sherman urged his reasons clear.” ROGER SHERMAN was born at Newton, Mass., April 19, 1721. His great-grandfather, Captain John Sherman, came from Dedham, England, to Watertown, Massachusetts, about the year 1635. His grandfather, William Sherman, was a farmer in moderate circumstances. In 1723 the family removed from Newton to Stough-ton. Of the childhood and early youth of Sherman little is known. He received no other education than the ordinary country schools in Massachusetts at that time afforded. He was neither assisted by a public education nor by private tuition. All the valuable attainments which he exhibited in his future career were the result of his own vigorous efforts. By his ardent thirst for knowledge, and his indefatigable industry, he attained a very commendable acquaintance with general science, the system of logic, geography, mathematics, the general principles of history, philosophy, theology, and particularly law and politics. He was early apprenticed to a shoemaker, and he continued to pursue that occupation for some time after he was twenty-two years of age. It is recorded of him, that he was accustomed to sit at his work with a book before him, devoting to study every moment that his eyes could be spared from the occupation in which he was engaged. During the Revolutionary War, Mr. Sherman was placed on a committee of Congress, to examine certain army accounts, among which was a contract for the supply of shoes. He informed the committee that the public had been defrauded, and that the charges were exorbitant, which he proved by specifying the cost of the leather and other materials, and of the workmanship. The minuteness with which this was done exciting some surprise, he informed the committee that he was by trade a shoemaker, and knew the value of every article. He was sometimes accused, but without justice, of being vain of the obscurity of his origin. From the distinguished eminence which he reached, he probably contemplated with satisfaction, that force of mind and that industry, which enabled him to overcome all the obstacles which encompassed his path. For the gratification arising from such a contemplation, no one will be disposed to censure him. When he was nineteen years of age his father died. His eldest brother having previously removed to New Milford, Connecticut, the principal charge of the family devolved on him. At this early period of life, the care of a mother, who lived to a great age, and the education of a numerous family of brothers and sisters, brought into grateful exercise his warm, filial and fraternal affections. The assistance subsequently afforded by him to two of his younger brothers, enabled them to obtain the inestimable advantages of a public education. He continued to reside at Stoughton about three years after the death of his father, principally employed in the cultivation of the farm, and in otherwise providing for the main-tenance of the family. Before he was twenty-one he made a public profession of religion. He thus laid the foundation of his character in piety. That unbending integrity which has almost made his name synonymous with virtue itself, was acquired in the school of Christ and his apostles. Mr. Sherman used to remark to his family that, before he had attained the age of twenty-one years, he had learned to control and govern his passions. His success in these efforts he attributed, in a considerable degree, to Dr. Watts' excellent treatise on this subject. His passions were naturally strong, but he had brought them under subjection to such a degree, that he appeared to be habitually calm and sedate, mild and agreeable. All his actions seem to have been preceded by a rigorous self-examination, and the answering of the secret interrogatories, What is right? What course ought I to pursue? He never propounded to himself the questions, Will it be popular? How will it affect my interest? Hence his reputation for integrity was never questioned. In 1743 he removed with the family to New Milford, a town. near New Haven, Connecticut. He performed the journey on foot, taking care to have his shoemaker's tools also transported. He there commenced business as a country merchant, and opened a store in conjunction with his elder brother, which he continued till after his admission to the bar, in 1754. He discontinued his trade as a shoemaker at the time this connection was formed. In 1745 he was appointed surveyor of lands for the county in which he resided. Astronomical calculations of as early date as 1748, have been discovered among his papers. They were made by him for an almanac, then published in New York, and which he continued to supply for several successive years. About this time, a providential circumstance led him to aspire after a higher station in life. He was requested by a friend to seek for him legal advice in a neighboring town. To prevent embarrassment and secure the accurate representation of the case, he committed it to paper as well as he could before he left home. In stating the facts, the lawyer observed that Mr. Sherman frequently recurred to a manuscript which he held in his hand. As it was necessary to make an application by way of petition to the proper tribunal, he desired the paper to be left in his hands, provided it contained a statement of the case from which a petition might be framed. Mr. Sherman reluctantly consented, telling him that it was merely a memorandum drawn up by himself for his own convenience. The lawyer, after reading it, remarked, with an expression of surprise, that, with a few alterations in form, it was equal to any petition which he could have prepared himself, and that no |