such) than to plants. Not only the complexion, but the blood itself, which is the source of complexion, loses much of its florid hue in miners, criminals confined in dark dungeons, and other persons long secluded from the light. During suitable weather, infants should pass several hours daily in the open air.

The muscular exercise of children should be regulated with more judgment and care than is usually bestowed on it. Creeping is their first mode of progression. They should be encouraged in this, and induced to practise it freely. Nurses and parents, especially young parents, are generally too anxious to see their infants beginning to walk, or rather to totter along in a kind of movement that can hardly be called walking. Hence they induce them to make premature efforts to that effect The evils likely to arise, and which often do arise, from this practice, are plain. Owing to the immaturity and flexibility of their bones, and the feebleness of their muscles, the legs are frequently bent and deformed by it; and the children, falling, injure their heads or other parts of their bodies. The precise age at which children may begin to walk with safety, cannot be settled by any general rule. But none should be allowed to walk until the firmness and strength of their limbs are sufficient to sustain, without distortion or injury, the weight of their bodies.

The passions of children, if indulged, are growing evils. Hence they should be vigilantly held in check from the earliest period. If, instead of being curbed, they are fed and fostered, they become the ruling elements of character, and insure to the individual a life of trouble- not to say of accident, disease, and suffering. A large proportion of the evils of life, as respects both health and fortune, is the result, more or less directly, of unruly passions. Children should never be allowed to obtain what has once been denied them, by breaking into a passion about it. Such an act ought to be always visited by a positive privation of the thing desired; and the

ground of the denial should be made known to them. Never let a child have reason to believe that a gust of passion is a suitable means to obtain the gratification of a wish. Teach him, as far as possible, to know and feel the reverse; and should he become offended at a pet or plaything, neither beat it yourself, nor allow him to beat it, by way of pacification or revenge. Such a mode of procedure is aliment to vindictiveness, and leads to mischief-perhaps, in the end, to murder. As relates to matters of this kind, ignorant and passionate nurses are among the worst of family nuisances. They often blow into a flame the sparks of passion, which, without their aid, would have slumbered and gone out. A fiery education in the nursery may heat the brain to the verge of inflammation, and aid in the production of actual inflammation or madness, impair health in sundry other ways by excessive excitement, render unhappy the days of others, as well as the mismanaged individual, and lay the foundation of a blasted reputation.

But it is not the temper alone that is injured by a nursery education unskilfully conducted. Habits of deception, falsehood, and even theft, are not unfrequently encouraged and formed by it. This can scarcely fail to lead to serious mischief; it being the natural course of things, that seeds sown in infancy yield fruit in maturer years. The slightest disposition, therefore, in children to deviate from truth or candor, either in words or actions, or to appropriate as their own what does not belong to them, should be promptly suppressed.

LESSON V.

Early Training of Children.

SATURDAY MAGAZINE.

Few persons are aware, or consider, how very early in life the tempers of children begin to be formed, and consequently

how soon that important part of the business of education, which consists in the training the mind to habits of discipline and submission, may be commenced.

“I wish,” said a lady, some years since, to the writer of a work on education - "I wish very much to consult you about the education of my little girl, who is now just three years old."

"Madam," replied the author, "you are at least two years too late in applying to me on that subject."

The first principle of education to be instilled into the mind of a child, is that of unhesitating obedience. The time for doing this, is the moment at which it can be perceived that the child distinctly apprehends the nature of any command, no matter what, that is laid upon it. To ascertain this requires a little careful watching; but when it is ascertained, there should be no hesitation as to the course to be pursued. As soon as the infant clearly understands that the word "no!" signifies that it is not to do something which it desires to do, obedience to that command ought, at all hazards, and under whatever inconvenience, to be enforced. In doing this, one or two collisions will generally occur between parent and child before the end of the first twelve or fourteen months, in which the patience and perseverance of the parent will be put to the test; these past, the habit of obedience is fixed in the child's mind for the rest of its life. Seeing that nothing is to be gained by resistance, it sinks down into submission as a matter of course.

While the foundation of parental authority is thus laid, how many other great lessons is the mind of the child imbibing! Every time that it refrains from doing some forbidden thing which it desires to do, it is practising self-control and selfdenial, and is advancing a step towards the mastery of its passions.

Some people talk about the management of children as if it were a science. Nothing is, however, in reality, more simple. Kindness, patience, undeviating firmness of purpose, and

F

a strict regard to principle in all our dealings with them, (mean: that are within the reach of all,) will, under God's blessing accomplish all that can be done by early education towards regulating the heart and understanding. Thus they will be prepared to receive the seeds of those higher moral and religious principles, by which, as heirs of immortality, they are to be educated for a better and an endless life.

The entire submission which we are entitled to require at the hands of our children, is a type of that obedience which we, on our part, owe to the Great Father of the universe. In terms sufficiently plain He has made known to us his will. Does it become us to ask Him why his will is such as we find it to be? why He has not done this thing or that thing differently from the manner in which it is done? - Just as reasonable is it in us to do this as it would be in our infant children to refuse obedience to our commands, until their understandings should be sufficiently matured to enable them to comprehend the reasons for which they were given.

LESSON VI.

A Grandsire's Tale. BERNARD BARTON.

THE tale I tell was told me long ago;

Yet mirthful ones, since heard, have passed away,
While this still wakens memory's fondest glow,
And feelings fresh as those of yesterday.
"Twas told me by a man whose hairs were gray,
Whose brow bore token of the lapse of years,
Yet o'er his heart affection's gentle sway

Maintained that lingering spell which age endears,
And while he told his tale his eyes were dim with tears.

But not with tears of sorrow; for the eye
Is often wet with joy and gratitude;
And well his faltering voice, and tear, and sigh,
Declared a heart by thankfulness subdued:
Brief feelings of regret might there intrude,

Like clouds which shade a while the moon's fair light; But meek Submission soon her power renewed,

And patient smiles, by tears but made more bright, Confessed that God's decree was wise, and good, and right.

It was a winter's evening, — clear, but still;

Bright was the fire, and bright the silvery beam
Of the fair moon shone on the window-sill
And parlor-floor; the softly mingled gleam
Of fire and moonlight suited well a theme
Of pensive converse unallied to gloom;
Ours varied like the subjects of a dream,

And turned at last upon the silent tomb,

Earth's goal for hoary age and beauty's smiling bloom.

We talked of life's last hour,

- the varied forms

And features it assumes; how some men die
As sets the sun when dark clouds threaten storms
And starless nights; others, whose evening sky
Resembles those which to the outward eye

Seem full of promise ; and with softened tone, At seasons checked by no ungrateful sigh,

The death of one sweet grandchild of his own Was by that hoary man most tenderly made known.

She was, he said, a fair and lovely child
As ever parent could desire to see,
Or seeing, fondly love; of manners mild,
Affections gentle, even in her glee,
Her very mirth from levity was free;