be compelled to take proper precautions, rather than be suffered to endanger their health. Care ought also to be observed in regulating the temperature of apartments in wet and damp weather. There is a class of people so precise in its habits and regulations, that fires are only to be permitted on a certain day, no matter how cold or humid may be the season; this is a species of regularity I never could enter into; it may be correct, but I not only believe it wrong, but know it to be absurd. Delicate females should carefully avoid the damp night-air, in spring and autumn; it is replete with mischief, and experience has confirmed this opinion.

I have before adverted to the necessity of air and exercise; it only remains to be observed, that morning is, of all parts of the day, best fitted for this purpose. One hour stolen from sleep will impart a vigour to the frame that will support it through the toils of the day.

SLEEP. Great attention ought to be paid to regularity of habit in the hours of rest. Among all the indiscretions of our youth, few are better calculated to destroy and undermine the constitution at some period or other than the infringement of that law of nature, which imposes the necessity of sleep in timely and stated seasons. Bed-rooms ought always to be capa

cious, dry and well aired; the bed not to be too luxurious, and the bed-clothes as light as is consistent with comfort; the curtains should never be drawn round, it is a most pernicious custom; in fact, if the bed be well placed, so as to be rid of streams of air, no curtains are required.

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Cleanliness of person is surely never to be confined to the mere washing of the face and hands; when general bathing or sponging is not resorted to, the dirt that accumulates on the surface of the body is beyond conception; in fact, we have continued evidence of such an accumulation by the state of our fingernails though engaged in no dirty or dusty employment, we discover that the dirt and perspiration (which are continually secreted from every part), will in a short time forin a very disagreeable deposit. Now if we reflect on the quality of this secretion, which covers the whole surface of our bodies, and is being hourly formed, we shall be convinced that a little more than the daily friction performed by our clothes is requisite. A bidet should form part of the furniture of every bed room; it is an article of indispensible utility. Bathing the feet in tepid water is not only an act of cleanliness, but will likewise be attended with salutary effects to

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the system. Cleanliness is indeed one of the cardinal virtues, for it materially contributes to support the system in a state of undisturbed health.

TEMPER. The indulgence of passion not only tends to the destruction of domestic happiness, but even of life itself. This assertion may be startling, but it is an undeniable and melancholy truth; it is the nature of violent passion to produce organic changes in the system of every individual who indulges in it. Numerous instances are on record of the fatal effects of violent paroxysms of temper, which have terminated in fever, apoplexy, madness, or sudden death; even laughter, when carried to excess, has been known to terminate life. A calm, serene and cheerful mind, may be secured by cultivation; even persons of a naturally fretful, peevish and violent disposition, will be astonished to find how comparatively easy it is to regulate their tempers, if they will but resolutely determine on doing so. A little reflection on the observations made under the preceding heads will, I trust, enable my fair readers to fill up the simple outlines I have delineated, and I shall now proceed to the graver parts of my task.

PUBERTY, OR WOMANHOOD.

IN the commencement of the career of life, woman is not absolutely a woman; the true characters of her sex are not yet developed; she is an equivocal being, who does not differ from the male of the same age, even by the delicacy of the organs; and there is observed between them a perfect identity of wants, functions, and movements; their existence is purely individual; we observe none of the relations afterwards established between them; "a mutual dependance;" each lives only for self. Females arrive at puberty much earlier than males.

The body of a woman of

twenty years of age is as fully formed as that of a man of thirty. In the majority of instances females are not only less in stature then men, but are different in their proportions; the haunches are further apart, the hips higher, the abdomen larger, and the soft parts less firm and compact.

A woman never enjoys her existence better than when a moderate degree of fleshness supplies her organs with all the elasticity of which they are capable, without inducing debility. In the hottest parts of Africa, Asia, and America, girls reach maturity at ten

and frequently nine years of age; in France not before fourteen or fifteen; in Sweden, Russia, and Denmark, from two to three years later; in England from twelve to sixteen. The earliest indications of this epoch, and the more perfect formations of the bodily and mental organization, is discovered in the increased size and more rounded form of the breasts; greater power and compass of voice—the sexual organs are perfected, hair appears on them, and under the arms. The genital organs of a female child are very different from those of a full grown woman; the womb in the former is not larger than the little finger, while in the latter it is the size of a pear. Those organs in children are not only small, but they perform no function, pour out no fluid, excite no passion, and even if the act of coition were to take place, no conception would follow. Moreover, although the girl should have attained the height or size of an adult, the sexual organs would exert no function till the period of puberty. At this time they undergo a most important change, both as to development and employment; the external appearance of the female is entirely changed; should you not have seen her for some months, you remark how womanly she has become; in fact, you observe a sudden develope