by fear than love? And have I not to-day been guilty of some of these faults? In fine; do I feel my own insufficiency for these things, and look to God for direction and assistance, in reading and prayer? O may my past errors in this thing be corrected, and my wilful neglects and positive faults not be set to my account, or my children's !'

But, not to enlarge, family government is by no means to be dismissed with the nursery. As long as the least trace of depravity exists, so long will your parental authority be necessary to restrain your children from the foolish, vicious, and dangerous courses to which they will be constantly inclined.

Neither is that branch of education termed instruction, to which I proposed briefly to call your attention, by any means confined to the school-room. These two branches, although spoken of as distinct, must ever, in the nature of things, be closely connected, and mutually dependent. Were it not for depravity, there were no need of restraints and correction; and without the faculty of reason, there could be no instruction. But while children continue to be depraved, rational beings, so long must their education be a continued series of restraints and precepts, corrections and examples. Government must prepare the way for instruction, and instruction. must help to render government efficacious.

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And as the latter must be seasonable in order to its existence, so must the former in order to its utility. But I need not labour to convince you of the truth of what I know you already feel; the importance of teaching seasonably, what you would teach effectually; of instilling early into the infant minds of your children whatever you desire they should either love, remember, or practise. I only desire you to use your influence and exertions, that certain of your neighbours may also feel its importance; for I recollect some of them posely neglect instructing their children, from the mistaken notion that they are too young to learn, at least any thing which is of any importance when learnt; but many more of them, while correct in theory, are grossly deficient in practice. Will you not urge them all to think seriously on this subject? to reflect on their own experience when children; to commiserate the future wretchedness of their dear offspring, which seasonable instruction, by the divine blessing, might prevent; to credit the united testimony of the wise and good, and, above all, the word of wisdom and eternal truth? And will you not read to them yourself the following passages? Prov. xiii. 24. & xxxiii. 13. & xix. 18. & xxix. 15, &c. And remember to close with "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."

You will probably expect me to say something more particular on the specific objects of an early education; but these the limits of a sheet will not allow me even to glance at. They are so numerous, I should not know where to stop. In a few days, however, I will take up the subject, and perhaps by the next mail send if so, another communication; you it will be a link of the same chain, and you must consider it only as the end of the first lesson. I ought to add, "This will we do if God permit."

Your humble servant,

E. C

LETTER III.

TO A MOTHER.

Dear and respected Madam,

My letter of the 10th inst. which ere this you have received, will supersede the necessity of an introduction to this, and I will proceed to observe, " Train up a child in the way he should go." If you inquire what that way is, I cannot do better than to point you to the way God has marked out in his word, as the only sure and safe one. You have doubtless felt something of your responsibility as a

mother; that principally on you. under God, are all your children dependent for their usefulness and happiness. For on you, especially during six or eight of their earliest years, do they look for a supply of all their little wants; you are always with them; from you they must receive their first impressions of right and wrong; and, under your care, they will form most of their habits, which will last them through life, and may I not say, through eternal ages! These things you have probably thought of, and trembled at the thought; and thus your mind has been tried with regard to what they ought to learn, and how they ought to learn it. The Bible, as was said before, must be your only guide, and prayer your only strength and consolation. Thus you may learn the end of their creation, as well as your own, which is to glorify God, by a life of humble active obedience to his will, in doing good in the world, and to enjoy him for ever, through repentance of sin, and faith in Christ alone. All your instruction will of course have a tendency, some how or other, to this great object. Whatever you teach them, either by precept or example, must be designed, either directly or indirectly, to give them correct ideas of the " ways of God to man;" of the character and duty of man, and of themselves in particular; to re-create the ruins of the fall in that little world within

them, the heart; to make them humble, and teachable, and pious, and active; and thus to qualify them, through the divine blessing, for extensive and eminent usefulness in their day and generation.

You will now willingly, and I think properly, leave your sons to the direction of a faithful and affectionate partner, and come with me to view for a few minutes the subject which common custom and language denomi nates "Female Education."Not that we suppose, or that any who use this phrase at this day of enlarged and enlightened views, are ignorant or wicked enough to insinuate by the use of it, that the female sex have scarcely a rational, if they have an immortal part; or that the constitution of the sexes and end of their existence, are so very dissimilar as to require an essentially and totally different education. (I fear, however, that the term has, especially in this country, acquired a practical signification, too much like this.)

Ladies are undoubtedly designed by Providence to move in a sphere, through this short life, different in some respects from that of gentlemen; their education, of course, must be regulated accordingly-different in some of its circumstances. But who does not see that this difference is quite unlike that hetween the human species and the irrational?