Sweet probationer! oh, that the dimness of thy once bright orb could now discern the vacancy thy loved presence has disdained to fill: could thy deaf ear listen to the fallen expectations of a father's pride; or thy little tongue tell the cherished affection of her, who bore thee in trouble, supported thee on thy short pilgrimage, and now will not be comforted because thou art not; then would the darling of her soul proclaim the unspeakable joys of its happy regeneration; and its buoyant spirit, soaring in the realms of bliss, whisper in her ear the glories of its eternal felicity: "in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth."

When a fond mother is thus torn from the clinging embraces of her sweet infant, she mourns, she pines, she is disconsolate; she perhaps rejects a father's sympathy, and willingly stores the dark casket of sorrow in her heart, until a new light reveals to her that there is one who has a balm to heal every wound-even He, that can restore a tenfold blessing. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." This is the ray of faith, which alone dispels the bitter recollections of the past; the more it is tried, the more it is purified: and when pious resignation cheerfully conforms to the dispensation of Pro

vidence, we often see it rewarded by a favourable recompense of those pleasing prospects whereon we have rested our unchanging hope.

"Auspicious Hope! in thy sweet garden grow
Wreaths for each toil, a charm for ev'ry woe:
Won by their sweets, in Nature's languid hour,
The way-worn pilgrim seeks thy summer bower;
There, as the wild bee murmurs on the wing,
What peaceful dreams thy handmaid spirits bring!
What viewless forms th' Æolian organ play,

And sweep the furrow'd lines of anxious thought away!"

And now arises into being a cherub, even lovelier than that of former days. The tender tie which death has dissolved, is linked afresh around the happy parent's heart; and there gleams upon the father's brow a manly expression of joy, that momentarily chases all his gloom away. The welcome news of a new-born daughter is a gala of rejoicing, which seems to administer to him fond caresses and pleasurable comfort; it is the happy omen of all his future happiness! In the friendship of this fair companion, the fond mother fosters a series of unalloyed pleasures; she reads in its softly beaming eye a volume of love and benevolence; and fancies that around its infantine lips there plays for her a symbol of future smiles and tenderness. Its fairy form is a perfect model of

becoming ease and elegance; and nature has already traced the graceful lines indicative of flowing beauty.

"O blest! unutterably blest!

The visions to their fancy prest,

When sire and mother blend a prayer

For thee, thou spirit! fond as fair.

Thy being sways their mortal breath,

And should'st thou die,-'twere more than death."

In narrating the list of domestic duties, none devolve more heavily on the care, or appeal more forcibly to the conscience of a parent, than the nurture of infancy and childhood; and, in reality, nothing can be more essential than a systematic and correct method of inculcating, by example, those early principles of religion which paint the precepts of morality in the most engaging colours to the sensitive mind.

There is in the moral views of every parent a meritorious and habitual anxiety and desire for the welfare and piety of their tender offspring, which seldom fails to govern their own thoughts, words, and actions; to incite in them good intentions; to encourage their utmost endeavours; and to frustrate the susceptibility of evil inclination, by the exemplary tenets of a virtuous practice. By this regular increase of virtue, or rather, gradual diminution of vice, that great felicity

is to be attained which Christianity secretly reveals to us; and by such equanimity the trait of virtue distinguishes itself, to the glory of our Maker, the general good of mankind, and the benefit and encouragement of the juvenile condition.

There are two main points immediately opposed to each other: the smooth and direct path to virtue, and the rough or indirect road to vice. “Vice and virtue, being opposites, will no more associate with each other, than exotics will naturalize in Egypt. The votaries of the one, therefore, are of necessity enemies to the other, with this remarkable distinction, that virtue (from the excellence of its own nature) is not capable of hating vice to the excess that vice is capable of hating virtue.". All mankind are travellers, hastening on one destined journey by one of these roads: are all performers in this busy world, acting on one stage, either in the character of activity or indolence; and by our patience, perseverance, and industry, we practically support the cause of the virtuous; or by avarice and sensual pleasures, profanely tolerate the pursuits of the vicious.

"If good we plant not, vice will fill the mind,

And weeds take up the space for flowers design'd.
The human heart ne'er knows a state of rest :
Bad leads to worse, and better tends to best:

We either gain or lose; we sink or rise;
Nor rests our struggling nature till it dies.
Those very passions that our peace invade,
If rightly pointed, blessings may be made."

How necessary then it is, that the tender, unpractised mind should, from the dawning of reason, be trained aright. How indispensable that early care to guide the indiscretion of youth; to prevent the prevalency of irregular notions and habits; to instil in them the knowledge of God, as well as to engage them to personal and social virtue. If the young traveller be directed to set out well in the journey of life, we may reasonably expect the most happy result. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Thus begirt with moral strength, the virtuous associations of childhood will extend to the most distant stages: the susceptible heart, capable of the liveliest sensations, will picture its delicious landscapes; and " hope, that dear prerogative of youth," will eventually bring him "an early immortality."

And next are brought to mind, the ambitious views of parents for the future prosperity of their children, which cannot be too carefully controlled by the laws of discipline and prudence. It is a precept (observes Addison) several times inculcated by Horace, that we should not entertain a