however, to lose no opportunity in trying to root out the weeds, and to plant in their stead those good seeds which should produce flowers and fruit. She was a woman of acute mind, and had her own way of viewing and doing things. She perceived that direct opposition or powerful coercion would be of little avail, and might destroy her own influence, which she was anxious to increase and establish. They were sitting one morning in the handsomely furnished back parlor, when the following conversation took place between them :

Miss Litchfield-You look languid this morning, my dear.
Julia-I feel so, I am a little dyspeptic.

Miss L.-Had you not better take a walk in the open air ? Julia-I would rather sit here and cut the leaves of this new magazine. I really don't feel able to do any thing else this morning.

Miss L.-Did you ever reflect, my dear, how important good health and the power of endurance are to a woman?

Julia-It may be necessary for country-women, and those who have to work for a living, but I have always thought a lady was Miss L.-Do you like to feel languid and listless?

Julia-I should not mind it, if it were not for the head-ache I always have with it.

As this did not answer her purpose, her aunt thought she would try another chord. If I can rouse her in any way, thought she, I may be able to direct her afterward.

Miss L.-I observe that all the heroines of your novels are represented as having plump necks and arms, and well-developed persons; that they all move easily and gracefully, which cannot be done, you know, without some strength of limb and firmness of muscle. How do they acquire it?

Julia-I never thought of it. I suppose they practice Calisthenics, and use dumb-bells, and ride on horseback. I am sure I do not know what I shall do when I go into society with my scrawny neck and lean arms. I must have a pony. Miss L.-Suppose you were to make your own bed and sweep

your own room of a morning.

work?

Julia-Would you have me turn chamber-maid and do my own My father is able to keep servants enough for that. Miss L.-But suppose you were to do it with special reference to the improvement of your neck, and arms, and bust. Health and beauty generally go together, and they are both desirable. The activity which would give you muscular strength, would be of vast advantage to you for other and higher purposes.

Julia -I will swing dumb-bells if you wish me to; but to make beds and sweep and dust! I could not think of doing any thing so unlady-like. What would Mrs. Douglass say?

Mrs. Douglass was a neighbor of Mr. Litchfield. She was a woman of great wealth and refinement, and moved in the very first society. Julia knew her but slightly, but was acquainted with her general standing, and it was her great ambition when she should go into company, to enter the same circle with Mrs. Douglass and her daughters. If she had known Mrs. Douglass better, she would, perhaps, have understood how very little her opinions, as above expressed, were likely to raise her in that lady's estimation.

Julia went for her dumb-bells and swung them for about five minutes, when she called a servant to put them away, and spent the rest of the morning in reading magazine stories.

Two or three days after this Mr. Litchfield brought home two gentlemen to dine with him. They were intelligent, educated men, and conversed extremely well. One of them, who sat next to Julia, addressed his conversation to her. He did not introduce any very abtruse subjects, but spoke upon such topics as a young girl would naturally be supposed to understand. Julia, however, blundered, and showed herself so ignorant of even common subjects, that the gentleman desisted, and addressed the remainder of his conversation to her aunt. The latter observed Julia without appearing to notice her, and was glad to see that she blushed and seemed to be uncomfortable. If she never feels her deficiencies, thought she, she will never improve.

In the evening, she said, "Well, Julia, how did you like Mr. Taylor ?"

Julia-I thought him the most conceited, disagreeable person I ever saw. I hope I shall never see him again.

Miss L.-How we differ in opinion. I thought him sensible and modest.

Julia-Sensible or not, I care very little about him, or what he thinks of me. I have no ambition to be wise and knowing. If 1 can dress well, dance well, and have plenty of money, I shall make my way well enough.

Miss L.-Would it not be a pleasant thing to be well informed and agreeable in conversation? Do you not think it would be more gratifying to please a person of sense and discrimination by being able to converse agreeably, than to excite a momentary admiration by dress and dancing? Beside, my dear niece, let me speak sincerely to you, what is to be the fate of one who can only dress and dance, when she is no longer young? Every one

despises a mere dressing and dancing old woman. Such an one must inevitably sink into utter insignificance in society, and when at home with her own family, it must be still worse. But with good sense, a good education, taste, and a habit of activity, a woman can make life agreeable whatever may be her situation. Advancing age has no terrors for her, for she can depend upon her own resources. And she can also depend upon friends, for such a mind never loses the power of interesting others. But these are merely worldly considerations, motives of expediency. We have a higher law, which commands and urges us to constant effort. "Be not slothful. Work while the day lasts. Bury not your talent. Get wisdom, get understanding," and many other imperative commands of similar import, teach us that God wills and expects us to improve our time and our power to the utmost. It may not be necessary for you at present to labor with your hands, though every woman should thoroughly understand the appropriate branches of female industry; but it is plainly your duty to improve your own powers, to increase the happiness of those about you, to make yourself happy by bringing your mind into harmony with the laws of God and your own nature. All privileges are connected with duties. Your father gives you every advantage of position and education. You could contribute

to his respectability, you could gratify his fatherly pride, you could satisfy his parental tenderness, by strenuous exertion to become interested in that which is truly interesting, and studious of that which is really worth knowing. Ah! my dear Julia, Love and Knowledge are the keys which unlock the rich treasures of life. I do not mean love merely as the passion depicted in novels, but love of goodness, of truth, of nature, of family, of friends, of God.

Miss Litchfield was a plain woman of forty, but she became really beautiful as her countenance lighted with enthusiasm, and beamed with affectionate earnestness. She was truly a good illustration of her own theory.

Julia's better nature was touched. For a moment she felt a strong desire for improvement. She loved her father, and the thought of gratifying him, roused her to a short-lived exertion. But the habits of indolence and self-indulgence, are not to be overcome by a single word or a single effort. The labor of thought, and the trouble of thoroughness and exactness by which alone any thing valuable in education is to be secured, were extremely distasteful, and soon given up. But she was no longer easy and self-contented. She felt her own deficiencies, and began to fear she should not be able to take the high standing in society to which her wishes led her. Like most school-girls, she had looked forward to eighteen as the period when her education was to close; she thought it was too late to alter, and she became irritable and dissatisfied.

May had come, and Spring was beautiful,. even in the city. Miss Litchfield proposed to her niece that they should make a visit to a family of relations who resided about thirty miles distant in the country. Julia turned red and hesitated. "Do you not wish to go?" said her aunt. ·

"Why, aunt Jane," said Julia, "They are so poor; you know my uncle lost almost all his property by endorsing, as they call it, for another person, and they removed into the country for the sake of living cheap. We should only be a burden to them." "We can make them presents sufficient to repay them." "But,” replied Julia, "don't you think they will be mortified

to have us visit them, to have us see their poor way of living, and their mean dressing? You know Helen May is only eighteen, and there is no mother, and there are four younger children to take care of."

"I should like to go at any rate," said Miss Litchfield, "it might give them great pleasure to see us."

"Well, aunt," said Julia, "you may think me very proud, but I confess I should not like to see them here."

"Why, aunt, you know very well that no city people like to see their poor, awkward relations about them. If they come once they will come again, for father has often proposed inviting them; and just think of Mrs. Douglass seeing me about the streets with a company of poor, plain, country cousins. What position should I be able to take in society?"

Notwithstanding Julia's objections, it was decided that she and her aunt should make their country cousins a visit, and accordingly they set off one fine morning on the journey.

Julia was a good deal out of temper. She was much dissatisfied with being obliged to make a visit which she was confident would result in mortification to herself. "Now that papa is getting rich," thought she, "and I am beginning to be noticed in society, to have such a drawback." Soon, however, the beautiful scenery attracted her. attention, and feelings long dormant awoke within her bosom. She remembered the time, when six years before she had travelled over the same ground with her mother; and her simple, natural love of nature was re-awakened, as she remembered how enthusiastically her mother had admired the scenery, and how eloquently she had spoken of the Great Originator of all this beauty. This remembrance recalled other early lessons and tastes, and again a deep feeling of regret was awakened that she had not better followed those early lessons.

"O! mother," she exclaimed, internally, "if you had lived, how much better and happier I might have been; but it is too late, now."

Presently they came to a high hill on which was an elegant country seat; while in the valley below, on the borders of a