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to pass her time lolling in the drawing-room, reading novels, "flirting" at gay parties, in short, going the whole round of fashionable life, what is there in the nature of things, that shall at once transform her into the healthy, disinterested, and attentive wife and mother?

In these stations, will she have no need of firm health-no need of firm nerves-no need of fortitude, patience, and self-denial?

If neither her heart nor her mind has been fortified to bear up under trials, how will she bear with vexations in family matters?-how will she bear with disappointments which may meet her at every step?-how will she bear with interruptions, not only in her retirements, but in her most important and necessary plans of usefulness ?-how will she bear with the waywardness, the petulance, the weaknesses of her children? with the impertinence, the ignorance, the dulness and caprice of her domestics?-How, I ask, will she bear up under these, and ten thousand other difficulties and temptations, if she has neither health of body, or vigor of mind, to resist or overcome them?

In the training of our daughters, we should not, for a day, lose sight of the tremendous fact, that there are two worlds, and that the present life is absolutely a probationary state to one which is unchanging.

The fact cannot be controverted, that woman was not formed for a listless or sedentary life, neither was she made for a life of pleasure. On the contrary, her duties are of the most active kind, and perpetually recurring. Nor can these duties be thoroughly learned, but in the school of experience. How much wiser then that she begin her apprenticeship at home, under the watchful eye of a fond mother, whose patience and partiality, ever, will far exceed that of a devoted husband, whose youthful imagination has always pictured his wife as a paragon of female excellence at home, where it may be supposed that a father's pecuniary circumstances will allow of some prodigality in needful experiments, rather than those of a young man, just set up in business for himself, and who, perhaps, in commencing the early family establishment, had to resist many a remonstrance of his own judgment and reason, and the better judgment of family connexions.

10 INSTEAD OF THY FATHERS SHALL BE THY CHILDREN.

Even in cases where a mother is disposed, and really has intended, to avoid the evils we have hinted at, though her daughter is professedly employed, still her efforts do not amount to any thing her attempts at industry are a sort of busy idleness. She does not in fact relieve her mother of any of her domestic burdens, or sympathize with her under her load of responsibility, which, if divided, would not be oppressive.

It is by actually participating with the mother in the incessant toils which must at times be sustained even in well-regulated families, that our daughters can become qualified for the endless cares and perpetual obligations, from which it is impossible for a conscientious and prudent housewife to escape. Miss More beautifully portrays that kind of education which is requisite to prepare for domestic happiness. "That," she says, "is best, which will tend to form a friend and companion in a wife— that which will inculcate principle, polish, taste, regulate the temper, cultivate reason, subdue the passions, direct the feelings, habituate to reflection and self-denial-and, more especially, that which will refer all actions, feelings, sentiments, tastes, and passions, to the love and fear of God."

For the Mother's Magazine.

INSTEAD OF THY FATHERS SHALL BE THY CHILDREN.

It was a morning of no ordinary interest, when the firstborn, a daughter of twelve years, was to leave home, with all its endearments, to go to spend many months at school in a distant city. To be deprived of the affectionate care and kindness of parents, and in its stead surrounded by the unfeeling, scrutinizing, and cruel remarks, of the little world of self-sufficiency and inexperience upon whose stage she was now to enter, filled the mother's heart with what none but mothers feel, and she improved the few moments left, while waiting for the call of the stage, to say to her child, "You think Ma has a thousand unnecessary fears for you perhaps, but you will hereafter know otherwise. I have still a word to say about the choice of companions. We, my dear, (and I would hope all other Christian

parents,) have given you and all our children to God-you are a dedicated thing-and now you are going among those who have not been thus devoted, but among those who have been taught at home to think much more of being prepared to devote themselves to the shrine of fashionable etiquette, through a course of gayety in the higher circles, where they are expected to shine. What I wish of my child is, that she should treat all these with kindness and marked politeness, in all things-but, court not intimacy. Your own observations will soon lead you to discover those, whose home education compares with your ownwhose parents are pious, and their children modest and diligent in their application to the business of school;-with such, you will find it safe and pleasant to associate."

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Not long after the departure of this dear one, her father came into her mother's apartment, and with a sorrowful countenance, said, "My dear, we have sent our child to the wrong place; there is a revival in the school at W., where we talked of sending her; I am afraid we thought it would be a little more fashionable to send her to H.; all these things are against us ;"" and he wept. "God is able to cause a revival in that school also," said the trembling mother. "I know He can," said the weeping father, "but I do not know that he will, in answer to our selfish prayers." "We are to trust, and not to know," she replied; and they mingled their prayers and tears in sacred silence.

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Weeks passed away, and the family, who had for many months mourned for a young son of three years, were repeatedly called to notice the hand of God, in the deaths of several highly valued Christian friends, and at last the grandmother on the maternal side. In view of all this, the mother remarked to her husband, "Our friends are all gathering 'on the other side of death,' and I long to follow.” Nothing now seems to demand our care as much as these little ones, for whom our fathers and mothers have made so many prayers," said the kind husband; and he left her to attend the funeral of their mother in a distant town. Left to her own solitary musings, that precious declaration, "instead of thy fathers shall be thy children," seemed as if suddenly presented for her consolation, and was

met with, "Yes, I know it; I should indeed be a lonely being on earth, in the midst of all these desolations, were it not that God has blest us with dear children," and she pressed the babe more closely to her bosom. "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children," again passed before her mind. "Yes, I know God has promised this, and I will rejoice that all my old friends have at length found rest in heaven." Again, (and she unconsciously repeated aloud and alone,) "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children." The door opened, and a servant presented a letter, in the well known hand of the absent daughter, who thus informed her mother, that she had chosen companions strictly according to her wishes; that she had found among them those who often met to pray for their Christless companions, and that, hoping she had given her heart away to God, since she had been a member of the school, she belonged to this praying circle. The father soon returned to hear the joyful news, and to learn with the happy mother, that the promise of God to Christian parents, should lead them to expect the conversion of their children, when their pious fathers and mothers are removed to the church above.

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For the Mother's Magazine.

THE FARMER'S WIFE, No. II.

Good morning, Mrs. L. Have you read the September number of the Mother's Magazine?

Mrs. L. I have; and I presume that you have now called, for the purpose of following out the suggestion of Mrs. H.

You have correctly anticipated the design of my visit. I am desirous of knowing the strength of your plea, "want of time," to instruct and regulate your household.

Mrs. L. I will be as frank as was Mrs. H.; so I begin without preface:-There are seven who claim me as mother; the three eldest are young ladies; the other four are little children, two sons and two daughters. The young ladies are sprightly, intelligent, and attractive, but they never loved work, because

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hey were never taught to love it. When they were children, we were so well supplied with kitchen help, that they were not under the necessity of soiling their delicately white hands. Their father and myself made such a lamentable mistake, that they were allowed to regard attention to domestic affairs as beneath their dignity. Having repeated proofs, a few years after, that it was more trouble to induce them to perform any little task, than to do it myself, I seldom ventured to make any demands for their assistance. Now, they cannot be trusted with even the superintendence of ordinary household concerns. is true, when some agreeable company is expected, they will fly about all the rooms, and put things out of place; and possibly they may have something to do with making a rich cake; but it is a plain fact, that they increase the cares of their mother, instead of relieving her from them. Hence, I cannot manage my younger children as I could wish, because I must drudge early and late to do the necessary housework. This is my plea, "want of time."

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I would avoid, Mrs. L., being too inquisitive, but I must venture the inquiry, Why does not your husband employ for you competent hired help, as he used to do in former years? It is presumed that he is able to meet the expense; and he bears the reputation of a kind and obliging

Mrs. L. O certainly, sir, he is able and willing to furnisn me all the help which I need; but the whole of the story is, that I should be ashamed to have a hired girl, when the whole town knows that we have three strong, healthy daughters, about the house. When they have visiters suited to their taste, they are easy and serviceable at the tea-table, polite and engaging in the sitting room; and the remark to me frequently is, Mrs. L., you have nothing to prevent you from visiting your friends as often as you please, and you can attend the maternal associations and other meetings of female societies, for three such daughters as you have can take the whole care of your family. The particulars which have been related to you have hitherto been known only to a few confidential friends, and they think me quite excusable for not spending more time with the four children. You smile, sir; and perhaps you are disposed to repeat the inquiry, why do you

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