all. I have witnessed looks which spoke as effectually as words, and which did not fail to make their natural impression on the youthful mind. I have heard the sly innuendo, and witnessed, too, the effects of that. And I have seen a wife-need I say here a mother?—who thought she would not, for the world, have been the author of either the look or the innuendo, and who yet seemed to relish both. Or at least she did not disapprove of them. But not to express disapprobation, in such cases, is always, in effect, to approve.

"I have been in families where loose insinuations and coarse innuendoes were so common, that the presence of respectable company scarcely operated as a restraint upon the unbridled tongues even of the parents! Many of these things had been repeated so often, and under such circumstances, that the children, at a very early age, perfectly understood their meaning and import."

Nothing is more deeply to be regretted than the increasingly prevalent notion, that modesty and delicacy are less necessary subsequent to than before marriage. This sentiment meets with a handsome rebuke in the "Whisper to a Married Couple." "I know not two female attractions," says the author," so captivating to men, as delicacy and modesty. Let not the familiar intercourse which marriage produces, banish such powerful

charms. On the contrary, this very familiarity should be your strongest excitement in endeavoring to preserve them; and believe me, the modesty so pleasing in the bride may always, in a great degree, be supported by the wife."

The individual who gives herself up to the use of improper or unchaste language, or even to the endurance of it unchecked, is giving up at the same time the out-posts of all human virtue. The evil of being immodest, or unchaste, or indelicate, is great enough in itself considered. But this is not all. The vices are all associated; and they who have been introduced to either, or especially to all of these, are likely soon to become acquainted with others, and perhaps the whole brotherhood of them. Let us therefore beware of an improper or indelicate word or look, or even thought. Let us set a guard over the thoughts; for it is out of the abundance of these that not only the mouth speaks, but the hands act. Especially is it incumbent on the wife to do this.

Every young wife may have a delicate and modest husband. But in order to this, he must first have a wife of true modesty and delicacy. She may not indeed transform him in a day, or a week; but her ultimate success, if she persevere, is certain. No husband who has the least claim to the name, can always withstand it. I know

there are many husbands who are somewhat brutish; but I know, too, that there are many wives who are wanting in true delicacy of thought and feeling, and sometimes of language.

She is not truly delicate who uses, or endures patiently the use in others, of those coarse, vulgar words with which the conversation of many persons is continually interlarded; such as-"My stars!" "My soul!" "By George!" "Good heavens!" &c. Such expressions, besides being indelicate, savor not a little of profanity. They are exceedingly unbecoming in all, but especially in females.

CHAPTER X.

LOVE OF HOME.

Paul's opinion. Effects of "gadding." Anecdote. Dislike of home. Error in female education. Importance of

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loving home. A picture drawn by Solomon. Two pictures by Abbott. Effects of loving home on the family. Hints to the reader. The Family Monitor.

THE great apostle of the Gentiles, in his letter to Titus, has condescended to inculcate the idea that a young wife should be a keeper at home. But in order to be a keeper at home, she must first learn to love domestic life. Even Paul himself, would not have her stay at home, when she regarded it as a prison.

No small share of domestic felicity hangs on this single point. I never knew a husband very happy whose wife was fond of gadding. Taking it for granted that she rules well her own tongue while abroad-which is far from being uniformly the case-still, she cannot discharge the duties of a wife, much less those of a mother, unless she prefers home to all other places, and is only led abroad from a sense of duty, and not from choice.

The wife of a distinguished senator in Congress, from one of the New England States, assures me that for eleven years of her early matrimonial life, she never went a mile from the place of her residence. I am surprised that her husband-for he was an excellent man-should have permitted this; but so it was. She spoke of it, however, not as a privation, but as a pleasure. But there are few females, at the present day, who would do this.

On the contrary, a very large share of young wives in the fashionable world seem to tax their ingenuity to the utmost, to devise some plan for keeping away from home. One would think, by their countenance, voice and manner, that they regarded the latter as only a kind of necessary evil. And is it not so?

Where is it that the eye brightens, the smile lights up, the tongue becomes flippant, the form erect, and every motion cheerful and graceful? Is it at home? Is it in doing the work of the kitchen? Is it at the wash-tub-at the ovendarning a stocking-mending a coat-making a pudding? Is it in preparing a neat table and table cloth, with a few plain but neat dishes? Is it in covering it with some of nature's simple but choice viands? Is it in preparing the room for the reception of an absent companion? Is it in