warming and lighting the apartments at evening, and waiting, with female patience, for his return from his appointed labor? Is it in greeting him with all her heart on his arrival?

Or is all this regarded-and seen by the husband to be regarded as mere drudgery, from which she would rejoice to be exempted? Is she often found silent at home, with nobody there but her husband, heaving now and then perhaps a sigh, and uttering occasionally an anxious wish? Are her warmest expressions and sweetest tones, her happiest looks and most joyous steps reserved for the party, the concert, the call, the steamboat excursion, the lecture, the theatre or the exhibition?

It pains me excessively to know, from actual observation, that the latter is the true picture of ✓ a proportion of our modern female companions. They do not seem to marry with a view to the happiness of domestic life. They appear to regard home-the kitchen, especially-as the grave of all true freedom and enjoyment. What object such persons have in view, in entering into wedlock, it is difficult to conceive, unless it be to comply with fashion, and to avoid reproach. Do they not resemble, in some respects, the seven persons who are represented in the language of prophecy, as laying hold of the skirt of one Jew, saying "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel,

only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach ?"

There is something radically wrong in that education which permits females to come to maturity withont the most exalted notions of domestic bliss, and without the highest anticipations of sharing in the honor of its creation. How much more erroneous still, to suffer them to come upon the stage of action, not only destitute of this sacred regard for domestic felicity, but even hating it. And yet I have seen many a young lady of mature years, who honestly confessed that she should dread death far less than confinement to a single house, and to the cares of a household.

How totally unfit is such a person to become a help-meet to man! How entirely disqualified to discharge the great duties which Providence assigns her in the work of educating herself and others!

wife who

If there be among my readers a young has entertained these sentiments, let her consider. It is not too late. She may bring herself to take pleasure in what she now hates. Strong faith or belief in the importance of a thing, and a powerful will to execute what we believe to be right, are almost omnipotent.

Let her consider well the structure of human society. Let her consider well what is the first

and most important nursery of thought and affection-the first school for the formation of human character. Let her consider who is the firstnay, the most efficient-of human teachers. Let her remember the power, as well as the influence of maternal love. Let her hearken to the voice of nature, which speaks to her of duty, and points her to the highest happiness. Let her hear the still small voice of conscience, unless that conscience has been most strangely stifled or perverted. Let her hear, lastly, the voice that speaks from heaven, which prescribes her being's end and aim, her proud prerogative, and her sacred responsibilities, and which assigns her reward.

There are no duties on earth so nearly angelic as those which devolve on woman. Let the young wife then gird herself to the work which is appointed her. Let her resolve to be what she is made to be a messenger-an angel. Let her take hold of the promises which belong to the faithful wife, and resolve that what she knows to be her duty shall be faithfully pursued. Let her do this, and what is right will soon become agreeable, on the known principles of human nature.

We can never enough admire the simplicity and naturalness of Solomon's description of a good wife-the wise and virtuous mistress of a happy household-delighted with her home, and striving

to make her husband and her maidens equally delighted and happy. The following is the portion of scripture referred to, as we find it presented in Dr. Coit's arrangement. Let not my fashionable readers, if perchance I should have any such, complain that Solomon was an old-fashioned man. If the fashions which he approves are good ones, and the home which he describes a happy one, are they less so because they were in favor three thousand years ago?

"She seeketh wool and flax,

And worketh diligently with her hands.
She is like the merchants' ships;

She bringeth her food from afar.

She riseth also while it is yet night,

And giveth meat to her household,

And a portion to her maidens.”

"She perceiveth that her merchandize is good:
Her candle goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the spindle,
And her hands hold the distaff.

She stretcheth out her hand to the poor;
Yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household;
For all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry;
Her clothing is silk and purple.

Her husband is known in the gates,

When he sitteth among the elders of the land.

She maketh fine linen and selleth it;

And delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and honor are her clothing;

And she shall rejoice in time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom;
And in her tongue is the law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household,
And eateth not the bread of idleness.

Her children arise up and call her blessed,

Her husband also, and he praiseth her."

This, we may be assured, was never the picture of a wife who did not love home. Nor would such a wife as this, ever have reason to complain of her husband for going abroad to seek enjoyment. Not one man in a thousand would ever absent himself, who had such a home as the virtuous woman just described presided over, during the long winter's evenings, because he was otherwise solitary. Not one in a thousand, whose habits were unvitiated, would fly from his own fireside every time he found a leisure moment, to join the club at yonder store, or the gang at the neighboring dram shop, or the motley crowd that throng the road which leads to intemperance. If all wives loved and delighted in their homes as Solomon would have them, few husbands would go down to a premature grave through the avenues of intemperance and lust, and their kindred vices.

Abbott, in his "Path of Peace," presents some very striking pictures of home. The following

are selected for the sake of the contrast. The first is a home which is unhappy.