THERE is no strong ana enduring influence ever exercised over human character which does not owe much of the secret of its power to some ally within the human heart. Nor does this acknowledgment militate against the supremacy of Divine agency, in imparting to feeling its peculiar tone, to motive its bias, and to hope its aim; because it is no less a part of the Divine plan, that the mind and the will of the Creator should be made known to His creatures through a distinct revelation, than that the heart of man, by means often mysterious and incomprehensible to us, should be prepared for receiving all that is most important to his welfare, both in this world and that which is to come. This ally by which the door is opened to conviction may appear to us no more than some passion, some affection, or some craving want. It may be some yearning after good, or some terror at the supposed approach of evil. It may utter the cry of weakness for help, or the prayer of the captive for deliverance. The ally within the heart is always ready, before that which is to control the destiny of the whole being can take possession. Hence it is, that influences, appa

rently the most gentle and unobtrusive, are sometimes invested with a power which a less welcome agency could never wield. To the willing ally the softest whisper is more potent than the most imperative command from authority unrecognized, and undesired. Hence that influence which instils itself into the very elements of being, through the medium of a mother's love, is indebted for its tenacious and enduring hold to the spontaneous growth of an answering and corresponding principle implanted by nature in the very existence of the child.

The yielding of the plastic nature of youth beneath the mother's touch has furnished, through all ages, an apt and beautiful illustration of this fact. The softening of the temper, the bending of the will, the turning of the half-formed purpose-how often, and how justly, are these attributed to the reciprocal working toge ther of those impulses of nature which belong to the mutual affection of the mother and the child!

It is an interesting and instructive feature presented by history, in the delineation of national characteristics, that, even in their false religions, this mutual relation, this reciprocal principle of motive and action, is seldom lost sight of. It is still more instructive to observe that the lower any nation or people are sunk in degradation, the less is maternal influence under any form regarded; while, on the other hand, the very superstitions of countries ranking higher in the scale of civilization, especially the mythological fables of Greece and Rome, abound in instances illustrative of the influence of the mother over the destiny of her son, it may be in guiding his steps into the path of glory, in

watching over him in the hour of danger, or inspiring in his breast that lofty courage without which his safety could not have been secured.

Even Jupiter himself, the father of gods and men, while owing the preservation of his life to the devices of his mother, affords but one amongst many similar instances to be found in these ingenious stories, which, however absurd and revolting to our ideas of moral excellence, have added to their merit in filling the world with poetical images, that of being for the most part true to this first and deepest principle in human nature, the watchful care of the mother, and her not unfrequent power over the destiny of her offspring.

It is not less illustrative of this truth, that so many of the calamities which occur in this fabulous world are also attributed to the intervention of female agency, most frequently exercised on the part of the mother. The sister arts of painting and sculpture have lent their aid to immortalize the impress of this truth. That symbol of all sorrow, represented with such inimitable pathos as the weeping Niobe vainly endeavouring to shield her youngest child from the fatal arrows by which her whole family are struck down, would never have subjected herself to this laceration of the heart, but for an insult offered on her part to the dignity of a rival mother.

Nor is it in the purely fabulous alone that we rccognize the frequent recurrence of this truth-not the less a truth that we find it so often associated with falsehood. As the passions so forcibly portrayed in. these fables are all human, so are the principles and motives which link the heathen divinities together,

sending them forth to mingle, according to their different missions, in the affairs of men, and uniting them again as one family in their Olympian home.

No sooner are the affairs of this lower world supposed to be committed to the valour or the discretion of a set of beings, half gods, half men, than the mother's affection and influence are again introduced, and made to supply some of the most beautiful and touching passages of epic verse. Achilles, not otherwise the tenderest or the most easily subdued amongst the Grecian warriors, would have been wanting in the requisites of poetic interest, had not his mother so often left the solitudes of her ocean home to watch over his fate in battle, and to intercede with the divinely-gifted powers on his behalf. From her burning thirst for the immortality of her offspring, it would seem that this fabled mother loved the glory of her children better than their lives. But, again, she is not more poetically than strictly true to the maternal instinct, which in the immediate prospect of personal danger to her son, inspires the determined purpose of effecting his security regardless of all other consequences.

Such then, is that truth in fiction which serves, scarcely in a less degree than truth in fact, to prove that, even during this confused and mythic period of human history, there was the same general recognition. as there is now of the mutual relation between the affectionate solicitude of the mother and the susceptibility of the child, and consequently, of the deeply influential power which attaches to the earnest and consistent purpose of the mother's heart.

It is needless to bring forward here those numerous instances of a similar nature by which ancient history is embellished, and which have now become familiar as household words to all educated youth. But when the memorable expression of the Roman matron is recorded, it is not perhaps sufficiently borne in mind that the noble patriotism of the Gracchi must have owed much of its fervent aspirations after right and justice, as well as its indignation against oppression and wrong, to the same mother who, pointing to her children, exclaimed, "These are all the jewels of which I have to boast." A mother whose chief attribute was tenderness might have uttered these words. A mother whose devotion was expended, as such devotion too often is, upon mere infancy, to cherish and love: such a mother might have pointed to her children as the richest treasures which the world possessed for her. But to grow up to maturity with a bold and steady front set fairly in the direction of right-with a courage not only to dare, but actually to do, that which others are content to whisper should be done-with an ambition that covets power only for the sake of using it well, and a self-sacrifice that prefers death to the desertion of a good cause- -these are qualities which demand far other sustenance than that which is required for the mere growing up to maturity in health. And such would seem to have been the noble purpose of this Roman mother, for we read of no yielding on her part, but rather a cheering onward in the same course, even when beset with difficulty and slanger to her sons, and promising no issue but a patriotic death.