to become the life of a social circle. But, so full of labors were her days, that she could not devote as much time to social intercourse as she could have wished. Yet, wherever known, she was ever a welcome guest; and she always delighted to make those happy with whom she associated."

21*

CHAPTER XXII.

INDUSTRY.

GUIDO'S PICTURE

MARY LYON AN EXAMPLE OF INDUSTRY MODE OF RECREATING-BOYS MORE INDUSTRIOUS THAN GIRLS -A FABLE- INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRY ON THE HEARTWORDS OF BISHOP HALL-GREAT WASTE OF TIME AMONG GIRLS - AN ESTIMATE-REMARK OF BISHOP TAYLOR - RESULT IF ALL WERE INDUSTRIOUS — THE CHINESE EMPEROR A DAUGHTER WHO AIDS HER MOTHER-TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.

GUIDO, in one of his famous pictures, represents a pious and lovely maiden industriously employed, while she is attended by two guardian angels. The idea which he designed to convey by the painting was, that innocence and industry are twin qualities, one and inseparable, and only those who help themselves can receive assistance from above.

Mary Lyon answers to the maiden in Guido's picture. As we have seen already, she was ever busily employed, and God sent his heralds of good to bless her active life. She believed, with Lord Bacon, "that in this theatre of life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers-on ;" and therefore she labored with all her might. Dr.

Hitchcock beautifully says: "A sound mind in a sound body was her birthright. But he who breathed into her clay so much more vital fire than he commonly sees fit to bestow upon an individual, next adapted her outward circumstances to its safe keeping. She was not born to ease and affluence. She was not cradled on down. She did not tread on soft carpets, loll on cushioned sofas, ride at first in her basket cradle, and afterwards in a coach. So doing and faring, she might by middle age, have become so enervated in body and mind as scarce to adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness...

"As Mary grew in strength, she was busily and laboriously employed. She knew what it was to labor, working with her own hands. Her farsighted mother had no drones in that little hive. She worked in the most agreeable of all circumstances in the society and under the eye of that cheerful, capable, sensible mother. Up with the lark, from sunrise to sunset she went from one sort of work to another, never tired, never unhappy, never discontented. How beautifully she always spoke of woman's sphere of labor! So much variety, such pleasant work!' she used to say; 'so unlike the monotonous task of drawing out the waxed end, or driving the peg all day long.' She could never have performed so much physi

cal and mental labor as she did, from the age

of

fourteen, without the habit of unwearied industry. Indolent school-girls are not inclined to study till twelve o'clock at night, week after week; nor to rise with the sun to renew their tasks; neither are they disposed to engage heartily in manual employment in order to obtain the means of defraying their expenses at school. There must be some love of work where there is so much earnestness in its prosecution. There is no doubt that industry did much to make Mary Lyon the scholar and true woman that she was. She appeared to believe, she certainly proved, the truth of the lines:

"Work! and thou shalt bless the day,

Ere thy task be done;

They that work not, cannot pray —

Cannot feel the sun.

Worlds thou mayest possess with health

And unslumbering powers;

Industry alone is wealth,

What we do is ours."

We have been struck with one fact of her life she never sought amusements on the plea that they were necessary to health. How many girls, and older persons, say, 'We must have amusements for the health of body and mind. It will not do to

tax the physical and mental powers incessantly, for they will break down'! And, with this plea, they indulge in the popular amusements of the day. Mary Lyon's course from girlhood proves the falsity of this view, and establishes the truth of our own position, in a previous chapter, on amusements. She never indulged in vain and useless pleasures for necessary recreation, but found it in employments of another character; so that, when she was seeking relaxation, it was always in a way that still preserved her habits of industry. Her recreation was derived more from a variety of useful labors than from any mere amusement.

It is quite evident that boys are generally more industrious than girls. It is not unusual to see the latter living, week after week, and month after month, with nothing to do. The fault may not be theirs so much as it is that of social customs. They are educated in indolent habits, in many instances. At the same time, parents teach their sons that idleness is the cause of much mischief. They say, with the Turks, "the devil tempts all other men, but idle men tempt the devil." They entreat them to be industrious to avoid the idle moments of the loafer. Why is not industry as important to girls? If it tend to improve the body and mind, by keeping them employed in doing useful things, will it not do this for the female sex? If idleness