The invalid looked at him with affectionate regret, as if she thought it a crime not to love such endearing kindness. and every one present made a powerful effort to suppress painful, suffocating emotion.-Lucretia had a bunch of purple violets fastened in her girdle,—and with a forced smile she placed them in the hands of her dying friend. She looked at them a moment with a sort of abstracted attention, and an expression strangely unearthly, as she said, "I have thought that wild flowers might be the alphabet of angels, whereby they write on hills and fields mysterious truths, which it is not given our fallen nature to understand. What think you, dear father?"

"I think, my beloved child, that the truths we do comprehend are enough to support us through all our trials."

The confidence of the Christian was strong within him, when he spoke; but he looked on his dying daughter, the only image of a wife dearly beloved,—and nature prevailed. He covered his eyes, and shook his white hairs mournfully, as he added, "God in his mercy grant, that we may find them sufficient in this dreadful struggle." All was again still,-still, in that chamber of death. The birds sung as sweetly as if there was no such thing as discord in the habitations of man; and the blue sky was as bright as if earth were a stranger to ruin, and the human soul knew not of desolation. Twilight advanced, unmindful that weeping eyes watched her majestic and varied beauty. The silvery clouds, that composed her train, were fast sinking into a gorgeous column of gold and purple. It seemed as if celestial spirits were hovering around their mighty pavilion of light, and pressing the verge of the horizon with their glittering sandals.

Amid the rich variegated heaps of vapour, was one spot of clear bright cerulean. The deeply coloured and heavy masses that surrounded it, gave it the effect of distance; so that it seemed like a portion of the inner heaven. Grace fixed her earnest gaze upon it, as a weary traveller does upon an Oasis in the desert. That awful lustre which the soul beams forth at its parting was in her eye, as she said, "I could almost fancy there are happy faces looking down to welcome me."

"It is very beautiful," said Lucretia in a subdued tone. "It is such a sky as you loved to look upon, dear Grace."

"It is such an one as we loved," she answered. "There was a time when it would have made me very happy; but -my thoughts are now beyond it."

Her voice grew faint, and there was a quick gasp,-as if the rush of memory was too powerful for her weak frame.

Doctor Willard hastily prepared a cordial, and offered it to her lips. Those lips were white and motionless; her long, fair eyelashes drooped, but trembled not. He placed his hand on her side ;-the heart that had loved so well, and endured so much, throbbed its last.

The Rose.-MRS. SIGOURNEY.

I saw a rose perfect in beauty; it rested gracefully upon its stalk, and its perfume filled the air. Many stopped to gaze upon it, many bowed to taste its fragrance, and its owner hung over it with delight. I passed it again, and behold it was gone-its stem was leafless-its root had withered; the enclosure which surrounded it was broken down, The spoiler had been there; he saw that many admired it; he knew it was dear to him who planted it, and beside it he had no other plant to love. Yet he snatched it secretly from the hand that cherished it; he wore it on his bosom till it hung its head and faded, and, when he saw that its glory was departed, he flung it rudely away. But it left a thorn in his bosom, and vainly did he seek to extract it; for now it pierces the spoiler, even in his hour of mirth. And when I saw that no man, who had loved the beauty of the rose, gathered again its scattered leaves, or bound up the stalk which the hands of violence had broken, I looked earnestly at the spot where it grew, and my soul received instruction. And I said, Let her who is full of beauty and admiration, sitting like the queen of flowers in majesty among the daughters of women, let her watch lest vanity enter her heart, beguiling her to rest

proudly upon her own strength; let her remember that she standeth upon slippery places, "and be not highminded, but fear."

Influence of Female Character.-THACHER.

THE influence of woman on the intellectual character of the community, may not seem so great and obvious as upon its civilization and manners. One reason is, that hitherto such influence has seldom been exerted in the most direct way of gaining celebrity-the writing of books. In our own age, indeed, this has almost ceased to be the case, and, if we should inquire for those persons, whose writings for the last half century have produced the most practical and enduring effects, prejudice itself must confess, that the name of more than one illustrious woman would adorn the catalogue.

That the society and influence of woman has often prompted and refined the efforts of genius, may be granted by the most zealous advocate for the superiority of our sex. From the hallowed retreats of the Port Royal issued the immortal writings of Pascal, Nicole and Racine; and the heavenly muse of Cowper had its inspiration nourished almost exclusively in the society of females. But, whatever may be thought of the influence of the sex in these particulars, there is one point of view in which it is undeniably great and important. The mother of your children is necessarily their first instructer. It is her task to watch over and assist their dawning faculties in their first expansion. And can it be of light importance in what manner this task is performed? Will it have no influence on the future mental character of the child, whether the first lights, which enter its understanding, are received from wisdom or folly ? Are there no bad mental habits, no lasting biases, no dangerous associations, no deep-seated prejudices, which can be communicated from the mother, the fondest object of the affection and veneration of the child? In fine, do the opinions of the age take no direction and no colouring from the modes of thinking which prevail

Unless

aming one half of the minds that exist on earth? you are willing to say that an incalculably great amount of mental power is utterly wasted and thrown away; or else, with a Turkish arrogance and brutality, to deny that woman shares with you in the possession of a reasoning and immortal mind; you must acknowledge the vast importance of the influence, which the female sex exerts on the intellectual character of the community.

But it is in its moral effects on the mind and the heart of man, that the influence of woman is most powerful and important. In the diversity of tastes, habits, inclinations and pursuits of the two sexes, is found a most beneficent provision for controlling the force and extravagance of human passions. The objects which most strongly seize and stimulate the mind of man, rarely act at the same time and with equal power on the mind of woman. While he delights in enterprise and action, and the exercise of the stronger energies of the soul, she is led to engage in calmer pursuits, and seek for gentler enjoyments. While he is summoned into the wide and busy theatre of a contentious world, where the love of power and the love of gain, in all their innumerable forms, occupy and tyrannise over the soul, she is walking in a more peaceful sphere; and though I say not that these passions are always unfelt by her, yet they lead her to the pursuit of very different objects. The current, if it draws its waters in both from the same source, moves with her not only in a narrower stream, and less impetuous tide, but sets also in a different direction. Hence it is that the influence of the society of woman is almost always to soften the violence of those impulses, which would otherwise act with so constant and fatal an influence on the soul of man. The domestic fireside is the great guardian of society against the excesses of human passions. When man, after his intercourse with the world, where, alas! he finds so much to inflame him with a feverous anxiety for wealth and distinction, retires at evening to the bosom of his family, he finds there a repose for his tormenting cares. He finds something to bring him back to human sympathies. The tenderness of his wife and the caresses of his children introduce a new train of softer thoughts and gentler feelings. He is reminded of

what constitutes the real felicity of man; and, while his heart expands itself to the influence of the simple and intimate delights of the domestic circle, the demons of avarice and ambition, if not exorcised from his breast, at least for a time, relax their grasp. How deplorable would be the consequence if all these were reversed; and woman, instead of checking the violence of these passions, were to employ her blandishments and charms to add fuel to their rage! How much wider would become the empire of guilt! What a portentous and intolerable amount would be added to the sum of the crimes and miseries of the human race!

But the influence of the female character on the virtue of man, is not seen merely in restraining and softening the violence of human passions. To her is mainly committed the task of pouring into the opening mind of infancy its first impressions of duty, and of stamping on its susceptible heart the first image of its God. Who will not confess the influence of a mother in forming the heart of a child? What man is there who cannot trace the origin of many of the best maxims of his life to the lips of her who gave him birth? How wide, how lasting, how sacred is that part of woman's influence! Who that thinks of it, who that ascribes any moral effect to education, who that believes that any good may be produced, or any evil prevented by it, can need any arguments to prove the importance of the character and capacity of her, who gives its earliest bias to the infant mind?

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There is yet another mode, by which woman may exert a powerful influence on the virtue of a community. It rests with her, in a pre-eminent degree, to give tone and elevation to the moral character of the age, by deciding the degree of virtue that shall be necessary to afford a passport to her society. The extent of this influence has perhaps never been fully tried; and, if the character of our sex is not better, it is to be confessed that it is in no trifling degree to be ascribed to the fault of yours. If all the favour of woman were given only to the good; if it were known that the charms and attractions of beauty, and wisdom, and wit, were reserved only for the pure; if, in one word, something of a similar rigour were exerted to