Application.

Love, charity, and an intercourse of good offices, are what we undoubtedly owe to all mankind; and he that omits them is guilty of such a crime as generally carries its punishment with it. But to our parents, more, much more, than all this is due; and when we are serving them, we ought to reflect that, whatever difficulties we go through for their sakes, we cannot more for them than they have done for us; and that there is no danger of our overpaying the vast debts of gratitude they have laid us under.

In fine, we should consider that it is a duty most peculiarly insisted on by heaven itself; and, if we obey the command, there is no doubt but we shall also receive the reward annexed to it.

Never speak ill of any man, but far less in his absence than in his presence. Nothing is more unworthy of a man of honour, than evil speaking. It is so far from maintaining peace among mankind, which ought to be the chief end of society, that it keeps a man in continual broils with the world.

Listen to the affectionate counsels of your parents; treasure up their precepts; respect their riper judgment; and enjoy, with gratitude and delight, the advantages resulting from their society.

Bind to your bosoms, by the most endearing ties, your brothers and sisters; cherish them as your best companions through the variegated journey of life: and suffer no jealousies and contentions to interrupt the harmony which should ever reign among you.

THE FOUR SEASONS.

Cold Winter, wrapt in furs, resigns his seat, and turns aside his withered face. The smiling countenance of Spring succeeds; when warm, gentle gales begin to blow, and soft descending showers moisten the earth. The ground is covered with young verdant flowers, such as the violet, the cowslip and the daisy. The trees put forth green buds, and deck themselves with blossoms.

The birds fill every grove with melody, and join in pairs to build their little nests, with great industry and surprising art, which unlucky boys often destroy. The careful farmer now ploughs his field, casts his grain into the earth, and waits for harvest. Now the tender lambs skip over the grass in wanton play; the cuckoo sings, and universal nature seems to rejoice.

"Forth in the pleasing spring

God's beauty walks, his tenderness and love-
Wide flush the fields; the soft'ning air is balm ;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense, and every heart is joy."

Summer succeeds. The sun now darts his beams with greater force, and lengthens out the day. The flocks and herds, unable to endure the scorching heat, retire beneath the shade of some large spreading tree.

Early in the morning, the careful mower, walking forth with his scythe on his shoulder, goes into the meadow, and with a sweeping stroke cuts down the grass. The cheerful hay-makers, with fork and rake, soon follow him.

They toss, and turn, and spread the new-mown hay, or raise it into stacks; while the laugh and joke, and merry *le, or song, echo the meadow round. The silent angler, on the river's brink, betrays the fishes with his baited hook.

But, see. the face of heaven is overcast black clouds arise, hoarse thunder at a distance first is heard, and soon the glaring flash, and loud amazing claps burst over their heads, while from the teeming clouds the sudden shower with violence descends.

"Then comes thy glory in the summer-months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year,
And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft, at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow whispering gales."

Autumn comes on. The yellow harvest tempts the reaper's sickle, and the glad farmer fills his spacious barn with various grain. The sanguine sportsmen now traverse the fields with various instruments of death. The wide spreading net entangles the fluttering covey; while the fatal gun brings down the frighted partridge, plover, or fine plumed pheasant

But, hark! the cry of the hounds and huntsmen strike the ear; and, see! the bounding stag flies over the forests. The shifts and doublings of the timorous hare, and all the cunning tricks of the fox are vain. Now in the tangling woods the boy with eagerness pulls down the clustering nat. The mellow orchard now affords its various fruit; peach, plum, nectarine; pear, apple, apricot, or fig.

The juicy grape swells with its luscious store, and the large tun overflows with generous wine. Now, too, the provident, laborious bees, are robbed of their winter stock of honey hoarded up in waxen cells, and cruelly murdered. But, lo! the rising mists at morn and evening, the chilling breeze, the falling leaves, and the decayed herbage all around, declare the approach of a more surly

season.

It is Winter. The trees are all divested of their leaves, and silent birds sit pensive on their naked branches. No music gladens the grove, nor verdure clothes the plain. The winds blow cold; the fogs arise; and the faint sun is scarcely seen or felt.

The fur and the lined waistcoat supply warmth to the human race; or round the cheerful fire they sit, and talk, and laugh, and sing, while through the long dark night the north wind whistles and the tempest roars. 'Tis keen and chilling frost. The powers of nature seem bound up or dead. The, waters, all congealed to ice, admit the crowds of sliding boys, or bolder youths with skates beneath their feet, who swiftly skim around the level surface.

The snow descends, and covers all the whitened plain. The careful farmer feeds his flocks and herds with hay; and the thresher in his barn, from morn to night, pursues the flail's laborious task.

"In winter, awful THOU! with clouds and storms
Around thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest roll'd.
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
Riding sublime, thou bid'st the world adore,
And humblest nature with thy northern blast.

-Behold, fond man;

See here thy pictur'd life! Pass some few years,
Thy flow'ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,
Thy sober Autumn, fading into age,

And pale concluding Winter comes at last,

And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled
Those dreams of greatness! those unsolid hopes
Of happiness? those longings after fame?
Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?
Those gay spent festive nights? those veering thoughts,
Lost between good and ill, that shar'd thy life?
All now are vanished! Virtue sole survives,
Immortal never-failing friend of man,

His guide to happiness on high!".

RELIGION THE BEST FEMALE ACQUIREMENT.

Without religion no lady's education can be complete. True religion is the joint refulgence of all the virtues. It resembles the sun, at whose sight all the stars hide their diminished heads. It breathes benevolence to man.

The truly pious serve God, their benefactor, with their whole soul. They honour and love him, not so much for the sake of their promised reward, as for the benefits they have received, and are more actuated by gratitude than hope.

They are severe to themselves, and compassionate to others. They endeavour to reclaim the erroneous, not by severity, but by meelmess. They are always similar to themselves, and serve God uniformly, not by fits and starts. They are at peace with all men. They comfort the afflicted, support the distressed, and clothe the naked.

They neither exult in prosperity, nor sink in adversity, but remain contented with the will of God, and patiently