and masters; social, moral, and religious training being principally kept in view. But it has not often been apprehended how closely domestic education is connected, or how forcibly it may be made to co-operate with the education of the school-room. It is not enough to say or to perceive that moral and intellectual instruction ought to be constantly afforded and urged both in the school-room and at the fireside; they must be seen to be most efficient when lending the reciprocal aids and encouragements of kindred institutions; the one being more immediately the offspring of the Universal Parent than the other, but both of wisdom and benevolence. When most of the obedience, order, and appetite for healthy knowledge created and maintained in a well-regulated and good school, are carried to the fireside, and, in return, when most of the morality and kindliness of the virtuous domestic life are carried to the public seminary, there will be the best combination and reciprocity, and which will discover the twinship in the development of manhood. The study or perusal of the two small works first in our list, at the beginning of this paper, have served to press the sentiment we have now expressed forcibly upon our minds, and to open up with a more ample magnitude the nature and capacities of the relationship adverted to previously than we perceived. The author of "Fireside Education," when speaking of its importance in the training of the young, and particularly of the several offices which the mother and father hold in that sacred hall, says: "The mother holds the reins of the soul; the father sways the dominion of the intellect. I do not affirm, that there is an exact or complete division of empire between the parents. Both exert a powerful influence over the mind and heart. I mean only to state generally, that the natural power of the mother is exercised rather over the affections, and that of the father over the mind. It is a blended sway, and if exerted in unison it has the force of destiny. There may be cases in which children may seem to set parental authority at defiance; but these instances, if they actually occur, are rare, and may be regarded as exceptions, which are said to prove the rule. Remember the impressible character of youth, and consider its relation to the parent. Is not the one like the fused metal, and has not the other the power to impress upon it an image ineffaceable as the die upon steel? Nay, is it not matter of fact, attested by familiar observation, that children come forth from the hands of their parents stamped with a character that seldom deserts them in after life ? Are they not impressed with manners, tastes, habits, and opinions, which circumstances may modify, but never efface? If the countenance of the child often bears the semblance of the father or mother, do we not still more frequently discover in the offspring the moral impress of the parent ? " Is it not true, then, that parents are the lawgivers of their children ? Does not a mother's counsel, does not a father's example, cling to the meVOL. 11. (1839). NO. 1V. 00 mory, and haunt us through life? Do we not often find ourselves subject to habitual trains of thought, and if we seek to discover the origin of these, are we not insensibly led back, by some beaten and familiar track, to the paternal threshold ?" He also utters the following striking sentences, which we give, on account of their emphasis, in large type, when continuing to characterize the importance of the fruits of teaching, example, and discipline peculiar to the domestic seminary, "-" It is important," he says, "because it is universal, and because the education it bestows being woven in with the woof of childhood, gives form and colour to the whole texture of life. There are few who can receive the honours of a college, but all are graduates of the hearth. The learning of the university may fade from the recollection; its classic lore may moulder in the halls of memory. But the simple lessons of home, enamelled upon the heart of childhood, defy the rust of years, and outlive the more mature but less vivid pictures of after days." The aptitude in early years to receive impressions, the processes of acquiring, and the eagerness to obtain knowledge in childhood and youth, are phenomena in human nature. But this capacity and greediness have frequently been mischievously directed, and continue to be among the errors of parents, to the propagation of rivalries, and the perversion and lasting injury of the victim's principles and practices. We quote some paragraphs that are applicable to the points mentioned, and touchingly enforced, although there is not much of novelty in the ideas. These ideas, however, cannot be too frequently urged, so long as the errors spoken of are so prevalent as they are : "I will venture to make another suggestion to parents, which is the more important from the fact, that selfishness sometimes puts on the guise of virtue, and deceives even those who are concerned in the trick. There are parents, who, from the ambition to have their children shine, stimulate them by base excitements to exertion, thus sacrificing the purity of the heart, and often the health of the body. There are parents, who, from a frivolous vanity, dress their children in an extravagant manner; thus tarnishing the youthful spirit with the same paltry vice which sways themselves. There are some people, who are flattered if their children appear precocious, and these usually attempt to make them prodigies. " I once knew a mother who was possessed with this insane ambition in respect to an only child. This was a little boy, of bright intellect, but feeble constitution. There was, by nature, a tendency to a premature development of the mental faculties, and this dangerous predisposition was seconded by all the art and influence of the mother. The consequence was, that while the boy's head grew rapidly, and at last became enormous, his limbs became shrunken and almost useless. His mind too advanced, and at the age of eight years he was indeed a prodigy. At ten he died, and his mother, who was a literary lady, performed the task of writing and publishing his biography. In all this, she seemed to imagine, that she was actuated by benevolent motives, and never appeared to suspect the truth, plain and obvious to others, that this child was as truly sacrificed by a mother's selfishness to the demon of vanity, as the Hindoo infant, given by its mother to the god of the Ganges, is immolated on the altar of superstition. Let parents beware, then, how they permit their own selfishness, their own vanity or ambition, to lead them into the sacrifice of their children's happiness. Let it be remembered that premature fruit never ripens well, and that precocious children are usually inferior men or women. Parents, therefore, should be afraid of prodigies. Nothing is in worse taste than for parents to show off their children as remarkably witty, or as remarkable, indeed, for anything. Good breeding teaches every one to avoid display, and well-bred parents will never offend by making puppets of their children in gratification of their own vanity. "There are other mistakes into which parents are led by selfishness, which assumes the semblance of disinterestedness. Thus, in the choice of a profession, and in making out the plan of life for a child, a parent frequently consults rather his own ambition than the real interest of his offspring. In educating him, he takes care to cultivate those powers which enable him to command wealth, rather than those which insure peace of mind. He excites him to effort by emulation, rather than by a sense of duty; he infuses into him a love of high places, rather than a love of his fellow-men. And what is all this, but the immolation of a child on the altar of ambition by a parent's hands? a sacrifice rendered still more odious by the hypocrisy of the pretence, that it is for the benefit of the victim." There is a number of moral lessons that would have a most beautiful and delicate issue throughout life which may be taught in the family circle. One of these should be the guidance of the social feelings of children towards one another, especially of boys towards their sisters and other girls. It is a fact that children exert great influence upon one another, and have natures that wield it, for good or ill whenever they have an opportunity. How soon does a boy learn selfishly to turn to a tyrannical, rude, and contemptuous account the superiority of his power against girls of like years! Now, to quote our author's words, " this demands the assiduous correction of the parent. The claims of the weaker upon the stronger sex for scrupulous justice and chivalrous protection ought to be inculcated and enforced, especially by mothers, from the earliest periods of boyhood." How different, if this was anxiously attended to, would be the behaviour of many an urchin when going to or returning from school, as well as of the man in later years! Before proceeding to notice Woman's Mission," as set forward in the second of the works selected by us, we have only to mention with gratification that the author of " Fireside Education" regards religion as an indispensable element in all education; a view which is entertained and urged by every one in this country whose opinion on the general subject of education is worth consulting. That the Bible ought to be used in all schools, we believe, is the unanimous sentiment of those who profess Christianity throughout Europe and America; nor can we see that anything but the grossest contradiction would be involved by an opposite judgment. It has been well said, " that the Bible is in itself the best book that can be put into the hands of children, to interest, to instruct, and to unfold their intellectual and moral powers." How different is the character of many of the compilations, abridgments, &c., that are used at schools! "Woman's Mission" is evidently the work of a female hand; yet it is more original, more able, and more persuasive than the one from which we have already culled some passages. It is, indeed, a volume which every woman should possess and ponder: every woman who follows our advice in regard to it, will not only think more justly, but more complacently of herself; while visible will be the effects of her study upon her offspring. The design of the work is, " to advance the moral regeneration of humanity by means of woman's social influence." It is to show to mothers, that, " as the guardian angels of man's infancy, they are charged with a mission," that "to them is committed the implanting that heavenly germ to which God must give the increase, but for the early culture of which they are answerable." It is the neglecting of this domestic education which, in a great measure, renders it so difficult and yet so necessary for the legislature to do its part and its members to agree upon the subject of a national system of public, of secular, and religious instruction. The hearth and home department, however, is happily free from the political differences of opinion, and the sectarian sentiments that beset the other; nor could we desire to meet with a better expositor of woman's peculiar sphere. All that we need to do with the details of this exposition of influences and duties is to press some fragments of them into our pages. The author asserts and shows that it is not so much social institutions that are wanting to women, as that women are wanting to themselves, for the obtainment of their proper position in the world, or that she is prevented from executing her mission. "Good schoolmasters make good scholars, -good mothers make good men; here is the difference of their missions. It follows, that the education properly so called of the child, depends almost entirely on mothers; and if they have been too willing to trust to delegated authority for its accomplishment, it is because they have identified education with instruction." Again, - "The friends of instruction look upon intellectual culture as the grand panacea of all evils." But "though intellect may give dignity and vigour to moral sentiments where they do exist, it has no tendency to produce them where they do not. Nay, like an unprincipled ally, it is ever ready to aid either party, and to lend energy to bad passions as well as loftiness to good ones." It is in the culture of the moral sentiments and of the affections, with which gross passions never co-exist, that woman can be most serviceable, home being the sphere, and maternal influence there the most powerful and lasting instrument. Sad errors, however, have been plentifully entertained upon these and kindred points. We quote more extendedly : "Because it is perceived that women have a dignity and value greater than society or themselves have discovered; because their talents and virtues place them on a footing of equality with men, it is maintained that their present sphere of action is too contracted a one, and that they ought to share in the public functions of the other sex. Equality, mental and physical, is proclaimed! This is matter too ludicrous to be treated anywhere but in a professed satire: in sober earnest, it may be asked, Upon what grounds so extraordinary a doctrine is built up? Were women allowed to act out these principles, it would soon appear that one great range of duty had been left unprovided for in the schemes of Providence; such an omission would be without parallel. Two principal points only can here be brought forward, which oppose this plan at the very outset; they are-1st. Placing the two sexes in the position of rivals, instead of coadjutors, entailing the diminution of female influence. 2nd. Leaving the important duties of woman only in the hands of that part of the sex least able to perform them efficiently. The principle of divided labour seems to be a maxim of the Divine government, as regards the creature. It is only by a concentration of powers to one point, that so feeble a being as man can achieve great results." The author proceeds to ask, why should the salutary law she has just noticed, be set aside, -why should the beautiful simplicity of arrangement be disturbed, which, it is said,— "Has given to man the power, and to woman the influence, to second the plans of almighty goodness? They are formed to be co-operators, not rivals, in this great work; and rivals they would undoubtedly, become if the same career of public ambition, and the same rewards of success, were open to both. Woman, at present, is the regulating power of the great social machine, retaining, through the very exclusion complained of, the power to judge of questions by the abstract rules of right and wrong-a power seldom possessed by those whose spirits are chafed by opposition, and heated by personal contest. The second resulting evil is a grave one, though in treating of it, also, it is difficult to steer clear of ludicrous associations. The political career being open to women, it is natural to suppose that all the most gifted of the sex would press forward to confer upon their country the benefit of their services, and to |