Was it not "that it might know him and serve him here on earth, and dwell with him and be happy hereafter in heaven ?" There are three mistakes against which you should guard. 1. Do not suppose that a child is too young to receive any moral training. As soon as it is born, the training is begun; the beginning is made, either for right or wrong, for good or evil. 2. Do not suppose that it is your business only to nurse the child, and the business of the parents and governess to teach it: it learns as much from you as it possibly can from them. You are always teaching it; and, whatever pains they may take, it greatly depends on you, whether their instructions and endeavours are successful or frustrated. 3. Do not suppose that children are only, or principally, to be taught by set lessons. They learn more in one year, from your conversation, manners, and example, than they can learn from books in seven years. Considering this, how very circumspect ought you to be in all your words and actions! sider your situation beneath you, but rather the contrary. You are not to consider your education, even had it been completed, as thrown away, but rather to consider yourself as deficient for the honourable and responsible place you are called to fill. In my view it is exceedingly to be desired that every person occupying such a place should have not only your moderate measure of competency, but be especially trained for its duties. The day will doubtless come when this opinion will very generally prevail, and when it will be deemed that such a provision lies at the very foundation of the nation's welfare, and extends to the highest interests of the church of God. It is difficult adequately to estimate the importance which attaches to those intrusted with the control of the rising minds of nations; as compared with them, the commanders of fleets and armies are really but insignificant agencies. The preparation of nursery-maids and nursery-governesses is, therefore, a subject worthy the most grave consideration of all who have at heart the world's welfare. This is a point on which female education ought In order that you may do the most fully to bear, and the compensa- children good, and train them in the tion awarded to such labours should be right way, it is necessary that you such as to yield proper encouragement. should secure their respect, love, and In the absence of such training, obedience. They will respect you, if something may be effected by systema- they see that you are always concerned tic counsel. It is, therefore, with not a to do what is right, and afraid of doing little satisfaction I commend to your what is wrong: if they observe that attention a small publication recently your conduct is all of a piece; that you issued by the Tract Society, entitled do not speak or act differently when "The Careful Nursemaid; with Hints you are in the presence of their parents on the Management of Children,"-a and when you are alone or in the comjudicious embodiment of large experi-pany of your own friends and fellowence and careful observation, présent- servants; and that you never attempt ing a general view of all the duties to deceive. connected with the office. I shall embrace the first opportunity of transmitting to you the work itself; which I trust you will read, and read again, until its main provisions are thoroughly impressed on your memory. In the meantime I have much pleasure in transcribing for you the chapter on MORAL TRAINING. When you take a little baby in your arms, look at it, and ask yourself, "For what purpose did God make such a creature, with a body and a soul?" They will love you, if you are uniformly kind and gentle to them; if you do whatever you have to do for them in the way most agreeable to their feelings, and so as to prove that you are reasonable, just, and firm in your requirements; not capricious, or insisting on a thing merely for the sake of having your own will; not sometimes checking them in what is innocent, and at others humouring them in what is improper; not indulging one child and thwarting another; not giving way to their teazing or their violence; but steadily, and gently, and uniformly requiring obedience to what is right, and being always satisfied when that obedience is rendered. If you would teach children obedience, you must deal with them on one uniform method: kindly granting them whatever they may safely and properly enjoy; and, at once, firmly refusing them what is improper. This will save yourself and the children a great deal of trouble at the time. When a child understands, from experience, that what is once required must be done, and what is once denied cannot be obtained, it will not often practise resistance or violence, which it knows will be in vain. But this is not all. It is something for the nurse to be spared unnecessary trouble, and for the children to be spared unnecessary vexation and screaming, and for the family to be spared unnecessary noise and confusion: but these are not matters merely of an hour, a day, or a year. Whether or not the child, in the first few months of its existence, is properly taught subjection and obedience, is a matter that affects its whole life, and the happiness of all connected. Remember, then, by your good or illmanagement in the nursery, you are not only making a child or a family pleasant and comfortable, or the reverse; but you are forming the temper and character of the brother or sister, the husband or wife, the master or servant, for future life. When you witness in a grown person instances of violence, turbulence, self-will, oppression, or ill-behaviour of any kind, you will do well to accustom yourself to think-"It is to be feared that person was neglected in his infancy, and that the seeds of all these vices were suffered to grow, without proper efforts to root them up, and to plant the opposite virtues." Possibly this may not have been the case; but when people in mature life are continually sinning against society, if it were possible to trace their early history, it would, in most cases, be found to have been so; and every such instance should make you more alive to a sense of your own important responsibility, in reference to the moral character of your charge, and more anxious faithfully to fulfil it. If you would do this successfully, you must act from principle yourself, and you must endeavour to teach the little ones to act from principle too. Do things because they are right, and not merely because you will be exposed to inconvenience by doing otherwise. Accustom yourself to say-not, "I must not do it, for mistress has forbidden it, and I shall be scolded if I do;" or, "It is as much as my place is worth;"-but, "I must not do it, for my mistress has forbidden it, and it is my duty to obey her." Do not coax the children to be quiet or obedient, for the sake of appearance." There's company in the parlour; what will be thought of you, if you make such a noise ?" "Now, Miss, you must make a curtsey, and speak prettily, and then they will think you are a good little girl.” But teach them to be always civil and obedient, because it is right they should be so. If you act from principle, you will never say or do a thing that you would not like a child to imitate, or to mention. You will never suffer a child, in the absence of its parents, to be guilty of an act of disobedience to their known commands; and you will grant no indulgence that the parents have forbidden. This is necessary to your cultivating in them habits both of obedience and sincerity. Children always have their eyes and ears open to the conduct of those who take care of them; and if they should see you do one sly action, or hear you speak one word not strictly true, it would do them more harm than a whole year's instruction would do them good. Integrity comprehends three particulars: truth in our words; justice in our actions; and sincerity in our aims and intentions. We must be in heart what we profess to be and appear to be; we must not desire to obtain anything that does not justly belong to us; and we must not attempt, or even wish, to make people think differently about anything from what we know or believe to be the truth. Think of these particulars, and remember that you are carefully to instil them into the minds of the children committed to your care. Never deceive children. Never in you; or, at least, acquire habits of incorrect speaking. You are to teach them to be just in all their actions. Then you must begin by being just to them. Have no favourites, but treat all the children alike. Never praise children for their beauty or their fine clothes: there is no merit in these things; and if children are praised for them, it not only makes them vain and proud, but it teaches them to love flattery, which is deceit; and it unjustly sets them above other children, who may, in reality, be better than them duce them to do what you wish, by telling them that their mamma has sent word that they are to do it, when she has not sent such an order; or by promising them something which you either cannot or do not intend to perform. Never tell a sick child that medicine is pleasant, or that it is not painful to have a tooth drawn, or to have on a blister; but kindly express your sympathy for their illness or suffering; tell them that it is considered necessary for them to take the medicine, or to undergo the operation; that, if they are patient and resolute, the in-selves. Then you must see that they convenience or pain will soon be over; and the advantage, you hope, will be lasting, and more than make amends. Never induce them to obedience by false terrors, making them afraid of things which have no existence, or which are quite harmless. No words can express the folly and wickedness of telling frightful stories to children; or threatening to put them up the chimney, or in a dark room; or to give them to an old man, or a black man, or a chimney-sweeper, etc. Some children have lost their lives by these false terrors; others have been thrown into fits, or made idiots; and many more have had their tempers soured, their lives made miserable, and their characters formed to bad feelings, cowardice, and deceit; but no one was ever in any way improved by being thus made to fear where no fear is. Childr are very fond of listening to little stories; and a good nursemaid will be always gathering up, from books or observation, something that will interest them but be very careful that you never tell them, as truth, that I which is not true. Wonderful stories about things that never really did happen only confuse a dull child, and tempt a lively child to invent things itself which have little or no foundation in truth. If ever they do this, do not laugh at them, but desire them to recollect, and take care that they tell the thing just as it really was. By proper care on your part in all these particulars you will do much towards forming in the children habits of truth in their words. But if, in anything, you deceive them, they will soon learn to deceive are just towards each other. If a child has anything that is called his own, you must not take it from him, without his consent, because you want it to please the baby, or because another child wishes to have it. You may teach and encourage children to be kind, and share what they have with others; but you must not compel them to do it. It would be unjust to do so, and would teach them to be unjust when they have opportunity and power. Neither should you reproach them if they are not quite so obliging and complying as you could wish. Taunts and reproaches would only lead them to act differently for the sake of appearance, and would never lead them to feel more kindly. If they borrow anything, you should teach them to take great care of it, and duly to return it. If they should happen to find anything that does not belong to them, teach them to endeavour to find out the owner, and restore it. If they have injured the property of another child, or other person, whether by accident or design, you should endeavour to convince them that they ought to try to make amends for the injury, and be willing to part with something of their own for that purpose: and while you are endeavouring thus to use them to be just to one another in things as trifling as a marble or a feather, do not forget that, as they act now in these trifles, so, in all probability, they will act in great matters, if they live to grow up. Children should be encouraged to sincerity and candour in confessing their faults. This must be taught by your own conduct. If you have done wrong, or met with an accident-say, for instance, you have forgotten to do something that you ought to have done, or you have broken some article of furniture-never let the children suspect that you are trying to conceal the matter; but, rather, let them know that you take the earliest opportunity of freely confessing it to your mistress. It is most likely that she will be found ready to forgive a fault that has been freely confessed; and so must you with the children. Some children learn deceit by being harshly punished for trifles. It would not be your place to punish them at all; but you must never let an instance of falsehood or injustice pass without informing the parents-not in an ill-natured, tell-tale way, but with real affection for the offender, and a serious concern that his sinful conduct may be properly checked. When a fault has been committed, confessed, and forgiven, never let the child be reproached for it afterwards, either by yourself or by the other children. A nursemaid, however young, has much to do in forming the tempers of the children she nurses. If children are neglected or teased, it sours their temper, and makes them gloomy and peevish. Take care, then, how you behave to them, even in little things. Be always gentle and kind, and try to make them happy. For instance; when you wash and dress them, if you take hold of them roughly, and drag them to you, or carelessly let the soap get into their eyes, or hastily draw the comb through a tangle in their hair, you not only give them a momentary pain, but you inflict lasting injury cn their temper. If you use them to have their own way, and indulge them in whatever they cry for, this will make them domineering and violent, and unfitted to bear the contradictions and disappointments which they will have to meet with in future life. To avoid this, you must not only try to make them happy by indulging them in what is proper, but teach them to be happy in giving up, or doing without, what is improper. If you are obliged to take anything from them, think of something that you can give them instead; and if the exchange is quietly made, not only is a present outbreak of passion avoided, but something is done in training the temper for future life. Never let children torment animals. If they are allowed to pinch a puppy or a kitten, catch flies, spin cockchafers, or take birds' nests, it makes them tyrannical and cruel. Rather teach them to observe the ways of animals, and to take pleasure in seeing them happy. Never tell a child to beat the table or chair against which he has struck himself. He will soon know, if he does not at the time, that the table and chair cannot feel; and then he will despise you for telling him to punish them. But this is not the worst: he will have learned to be revengeful, spiteful, and deceitful. You must observe the tempers of the children, and avoid, as much as possible, the occasion of irritation. If you see that a quarrel is likely to begin, try to divert the attention of the children, and employ them on something else till the danger has passed by. Never say or do anything to provoke jealousy in children. Treat them all alike, as far as their ages and circumstances render it proper to do so; and, where circumstances differ, take care to make the difference an occasion of love and kindness-not of envy and strife. This very much depends on the manner in which you speak of things. For instance, instead of giving elder children occasion to feel that they are neglected and cast off, because there is a young baby, you should teach them to love and take pleasure in the little one, by inviting them to assist you in watching, protecting, and amusing it. If one child goes out, while the others are at home, encourage him to bring home something to please his brothers and sisters, if it be but a wild nosegay or a pretty pebble. The pleasure is not in the value of the article, but in knowing that they have been kindly remembered at the time that their brother was out on his own pleasure. If a present is made to one child, teach the others to be pleased; and congratulate the child itself, not that he has something to call his own, but that he has something which he can have the pleasure of sharing with his brothers and sisters. Then you should encourage feelings and acts of benevolence towards all mankind: yes, and towards every living thing. The merciful Creator takes pleasure in their happiness, and children should be taught to do so too: not merely to abstain from acts of injury and cruelty, but to try to help them and make them happy. Teach a little child not to waste crumbs, because they will do to feed the chickens or the robins; not to spill the milk, because, if there is a little to spare, poor puss will be glad of it, etc. Then, as to their fellow-creatures of mankind: when children are enjoying a plentiful meal, you should teach them not to waste, because there are many poor people in want. When they put on a nice warm | coat, or other garment, instead of teaching them to be proud, by saying, "How smart it looks!" tell them of the many poor little children who are almost perished with cold and hunger. Endeavour to excite in them gratitude to God, who has given them kind friends, able to provide all these comforts for them; and endeavour, also, to excite compassion for the poor and needy, and a desire to help them. Never tax children to give what they are not freely willing to give; and never allow them to give away anything without the knowledge and consent of their parents. But if they wish to part with anything of their own for a benevolent purpose, by all means encourage the wish, and take an opportunity of mentioning it to your mistress, that she may either sanction what they have proposed, or direct them as she | may think better. Commending these things to your most earnest consideration, I remain, my dear Susan, The Fragment Basket. 66 that Rome is the great Babylon; that the pope is the man of sin; and that every one who has the mark of the pope in his head and in his heart will go with him into the second death." "Oh, my dear, where did you find that ?" "In the word of God; and it is the word of God and the religion of that word shall be my religion. I will go no more to mass." She has been faithful to that declaration; she is now a true Christian, and is beloved by every one around her -D'Aubigné. THE MASS AT A DISCOUNT.--Some | you understand ?" "I have understood days before I left Geneva, the following occurrence transpired very near the department where this revival took place. In Grenoble, a young girl, I believe eighteen years of age, lived with her uncle and aunt. She had received a New Testament, and had been reading it some time. The aunt, one Sunday, said to the niece, "Do you not go to mass to-day?" "No." "Why?" "Because I do not understand mass-it is in Latin." "Oh, but you must go." The niece then went, but took with her the first book that came to hand, which proved to be the Testament. While in the church, the priest was reading the mass, and she was reading the Testament. She came to the Revelation of John, and said to herself that she must read that. She read eight chapters; and when mass was finished, she shut her book and returned home. The aunt said, "Did you understand today "Oh yes, aunt." "What did A GOOD WIFE.-She commandeth her husband in any equal matter by constant obeying him. She never crosseth her husband in the spring-tide of his anger, but stays till it be ebbing water. Surely men, contrary to iron, are worse to be wrought upon when they are hot. Her clothes are rather comely than costly, and she makes plain cloth to be velvet by her handsome wearing it. |