The author commends the culture of flowers, and the study of the properties of plants, as being a pleasing and useful recreation She says:-

"The tending of flowers has ever appeared to me a fitting care for the young and beautiful. They then dwell, as it were, among their own emblems, and many a voice of wisdom breathes on their ear from those brief blossoms, to which they apportion the dew and the sunbeam. While they eradicate the weeds that deform, or the excrescences that endanger them, is there not a perpetual monition uttered of the work to be done in their own heart? From the admiration of these ever varying charms, how naturally is the tender spirit led upward in devotion to Him 'whose hand perfumes them, and whose pencil paints.' Connected with the nurture of flowers, is the delightful study of botany, which imparts new attractions to the summer sylvan walk, and prompts both to salubrious exercise and scientific research. A knowledge of the physiology of plants is not only interesting in itself, but of practical import. The brilliant coloring matter which they sometimes yield, and the healthful influences which they possess, impart value to many an unsightly shrub, or secluded plant, which might otherwise have been suffered to blossom and to die without a thought.

"It is cheering amid our solitary rambles to view, as friends, the fair objects that surround us, to call to recollection their distinctive lineaments of character, to array them .with something of intelligence or utility, and to enjoy an intimate companionship with nature. The female aborigines of our country were distinguished by an extensive acquaintance with the medicinal properties of plants and roots, which enabled them, both in peace and war, to be the healers of their tribes. I would not counsel you to invade the province of the physician. In our state of society, it would be preposterous and arrogant. But sometimes, to alleviate the slight indispositions of those you love, by a simple infusion of the herbs which you have reared or gathered, is a legitimate branch of that nursing kindness which seems interwoven with woman's nature."

The following is the author's picture of a New-England 'farmer and his happy family. It is a sweet and touching sketch from rural life:

"The farmer, rising with the dawn, attends to those employments which are necessary for the comfort of the family, and proceeds early with his sons or assistants to their department of daily labor. The birds enliven them with their song, and the lambs gambol while the patient ox marks the deep furrow, or the grain is committed to the earth, or the tall grass humbled beneath the scythe, or the stately corn freed from the intrusion of weeds. Fitting tasks are proportioned to the youngest ones, that no hand may be idle.

"In the interior of the house an equal diligence prevails. The eldest daughters take willing part with the mother in every domestic toil. No servant is there to create suspicious feelings or a divided interest. No key grates in the lock, for all are as brethren. The children who are too small to be useful proceed to school, kindly leading the little one who can scarcely walk. Perhaps the aged grandmother, a welcome and honoured inmate, amuses the ruddy infant, that she may release a stronger hand for toil..

"The sound of the wheel, and the vigorous strokes of the loom, are heard. The fleece of the sheep is wrought up amid the cheerful song of sisters. Remembering that the fabrics which they produce will guard those whom they love from the blast of winter, the bloom deepens on their cheek with the pleasing consciousness of useful industry.

"In the simple and abundant supply of a table from their own resources,

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which shall refresh those who return weary from the field, all are interested. The boy, who brings his mother the fresh vegetables, selects a salad which his own hand cultivated, with some portion of the pride with which Diocletian pointed to the cabbages which he had reared. daughter, who gathers treasures from the nests of the poultry that she feeds, delights to tell their history, and to number her young ducks as they swim forth boldly on the pond. The bees, whose hives range near the door, add a dessert to their repast, and the cows, feeding quietly in rich pastures, yield pure nutriment for the little ones. For their bread, they have sown, and reaped, and gathered into barns; the flesh is from their own flocks-the fruit and nuts from their own trees. The children know where the first berries ripen, and where the chestnut will open its thorny sheath in the forest. The happy farmer, at his independent table, need not envy the luxury of kings."

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The sisterly relationship is one of the most interesting that woman sustains. We have no spectacle on earth more lovely than that of a harmonious group of sisters, especially when the bond of nature is cemented by that of grace. This tender relationship is well portrayed in the succeeding brief extract:—

"That class of duties which rest on the basis of the nearest affinities, it would seem, might easily be performed. Nature, in pouring the blood from the same fountain, gives bond for their faithful discharge. Those who were nurtured on the same breast, and rocked in the same cradle, who, side by side, took their first tottering steps, who together shared paternal tenderness, admonition, and prayer, ought to form a bond of the firmest and fondest alliance. Clustered like pearls upon the same thread, each should live in the reflected light and beauty of the other. Twined and woven together, in the very elements of their existence, the cordage should resist every shock save the stroke of the spoiler. Encompassed and girded by the holiest sympathies, whatever may be the pressure or the enmity of the world, they should stand as the Macedonian phalanx, or still more impenetrable, as that Christian brotherhood which is to be unbroken and perfected in heaven."

The character of an elder sister, educated and pious, seeking to make her father's house the image and the gate of heaven, is drawn by our author in true and vivid colors:

"Most of our incitements to sisterly effort will apply with peculiar force to the oldest daughter of the family. The right of primogeniture, though not aknowledged under our form of government, still exists under certain limitations in almost every household. It does not, indeed, as in some other countries, transmit a double portion of the paternal inheritance, or a sounding title, or a royal prerogative; since with us there are neither entailed estates, nor orders of nobility, nor monarchial succession. But Nature herself, gives pre-eminence to the first-born, who promotes the parent, at once, to the climax of enjoyment and of duty, and wakes those springs of unutterable affection which nothing but the ice of death can seal. The voice which first told the young man he was a father, will never be forgotten-though that voice was but the wail of the feeblest infant. The little hand whose touch first kindled in a mother's heart an emotion not to be defined by language, an aspiration of ecstacy never before breathed or imagined, will be leaned on in adversity or widowhood with peculiar trust-and the balm cup which it offers will be taken with complacency even to hoary hairs. There will often be found lingering in the parental bosom some mixture of that partial tenderness with which a dying patriarch styled his first-born, notwithstanding his prominent faults, the excellence of dignity, and the excellence of power.'

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"Admitting, therefore, that priority of birth implies some degree of precedence, not in power or wealth, but in influence over the affections of the domestic circle, it should be the earnest inquiry of all thus situated how they may accomplish the greatest amount of good. The station of the eldest sister has always appeared to me so peculiarly important, that the privileges which it involves assume almost a sacred character. The natural adjunct and ally of the mother, she comes forth among the younger children, both as a monitress, and an example. She readily wins their confidence, from a conviction that, more freshly than even the parent, she is' touched with the feeling of their infirmities.' She will sometimes be empowered to act as an ambassador to the higher powers, while the indulgence that she obtains, or the penalty that she mitigates, go down into the vale of years, among sweet and cherished remembrances. In proportion to her interest in their affections, will be her power to improve their characters, and to allure them by the bright example of her own more finished excellence. Her influence upon brothers is often eminently happy. Of a young man, who evinced high moral principle with rich and refined sensibilities, unusually developed, it was once said by an admiring stranger, I will venture to predict that he had a good sister, and that she was older than himself.'

"It has been my lot to know more than one elder sister, of surpassing excellence. I have seen them assuming the office of teacher, and faithfully imparting to those whose understandings were but feebly enlightened, the advantages of their own more complete education. I have seen them softening and modifying the character of brothers, breathing, until it melted, upon obduracy which no authority could subdue.

"I have seen one, in the early bloom of youth, and amid the temptations of affluence, so aiding, cheering, and influencing a large circle of brothers and sisters, that the lisping student came to her to be helped in its lesson-and the wild one from its sports, brought the torn garment trustingly to her needle-and the erring one sought her advice or mediation--and the delighted infant stretched its arms to hear her birdlike song-and the cheek of the mother, leaning on so sweet a substitute, forgot to fade.

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I knew another, on whose bosom the head of a sick brother rested, whose nursing kindness failed not night or day, from whom the most bitter medicine was submissively taken, and who, grasping the thin cold hand in hers when death came, saw the last glance of the sufferer's gratitude divided between her and the mother who bare him.

"I have seen another, when the last remaining parent was taken to God, come forth in her place, the guide and comforter of the orphans. She believed that, to her who was now in heaven, the most acceptable mourning would be to follow her injunctions, and to fulfil her unfinished designs. Her motto was the poet's maxim:

'He mourns the dead, who lives as they desire.'

As if the glance of that pure, ascended spirit was constantly upon her, she entered into her unfinished labours. To the poor, she was the same messenger of mercy, she bore the same crosses with a meek and patient mind. But especially to her younger sisters and brothers, she poured out, as it were, the very essence of her being. She cheered their sorrows, she shared and exalted their pleasures, she studied their traits of character, that she might adapt the best methods both to their infirmities and virtues. To the germ of every good disposition, she was a faithful florist to their waywardness, she opposed a mild firmness until she prevailed.

"She laid the infant sister on her own pillow, she bore it in her arms, and rejoiced in its growth and health and beauty. And when it hastened on its tottering feet to her as to a mother, for it had known no other, the smile on that young brow, and the tear that chastened it, were more radiant than any semblance of joy which glitters in the halls of fashion. VOL. VIII. January, 1836. 6

The little ones grew up around her and blessed her, and God gave her the reward of her labors in their affection and goodness. Thus she walked . day by day, with her eye to her sainted mother, and her heart upheld by the happiness which she diffused-and as I looked upon her, I thought that she was but a 'little lower than the angels.'"

The faculty of memory is one of the most interesting parts in the machinery of mind. The following remarks of the author relative to the means of improving that faculty, are very judicious:

"I am inclined to think memory capable of indefinite improvement, by a judicious and persevering regimen. Read, therefore, what you desire to remember, with concentrated and undivided attention. Close the book, and reflect. Undigested food throws the whole frame into a ferment. Were we as well acquainted with our intellectual, as with our physical structure, we should see undigested knowledge producing equal disorder in the mind.

"To strengthen the memory, the best course is not to commit page after page verbatim, but to give the substance of the author, correctly and clearly, in your own language. Thus the understanding and memory are exercised at the same time, and the prosperity of the mind is not so much advanced by the undue prominence of any one faculty, as by the true balance and vigorous action of all. Memory and understanding are also fast friends, and the light which one gains will be reflected upon the other.

"Use judgment in selecting from the mass of what you read, the parts which it will be useful or desirable to remember. Separate and arrange them, and give them in charge to memory. Tell her it is her duty to keep them, and bring them forth when you require. She has the capaci ties of a faithful servant, and possibly the dispositions of an idle one. But you have the power of enforcing obedience, and of overcoming her infirmities. At the close of each day, let her come before you, as Ruth came to Naomi, and 'beat out that which she has gleaned.' Let her winnow, repeatedly, what she has brought from the field, and 'gather the wheat into the garner,' ere she goes to repose."

The author's recommendation of books as friends, is touching, and even eloquent. She says:

"And now, dear young ladies, let me release you from this long dissertation upon books, after I have commended them to your intimacy as friends, safe, accessible, instructive, never encroaching, and never offended at the neglect of any point of etiquette. Can this be said of all your associates ?

"When intercourse with the living becomes irksome, or insipid, summon to your side the departed spirits of the mighty dead. Would you think it an honor to be introduced into the presence of princes and prelates, or to listen to the voice of Plato or Socrates? Close the door of your reading room, and they congregate around you. Yea, a Greater than Socrates will be there, if you ponder his words with an humble and teachable soul. If trifles have disturbed you during the day, sages will admonish you of the serenity and dignity which ought to characterize the immortal mind.

"Has ambition deluded you? The fallen monarch will show you the vanity of adulation, and the hollowness of all human glory. Are you out of spirits? The melody of the poet shall sooth you, and do for you what the harp of David did for the moodiness of Saul. Has friendship grieved you? They offer you consolation on whose virtues death has stamped the seal, Never to change. Make friendship with the illustrious dead. Your slightest wish, as a talisman, will gather from distant climes and remote

ages, those who can satisfy the thirst of the mind from the deepest fountains of knowledge.

"One volume there is whose spirit can heal the wounded heart. When it sorrows for its own infirmities, and for the unsatisfying nature of earth's vaunted pleasures, the voice of prophets and apostles, lifted up from its inspired pages, teaches the way to that world where is fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore.””

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No one is better qualified to portray the virtue of benevolence than the author, who is said to be herself one of the most active and efficient sisters of charity. We have pleasure in presenting the following extract:

"Permit me to press upon your attention a science at once simple and sublime; of easy attainment, yet inexhaustible in its resources, and in its results boundless as eternity. Some sciences require superior intellect, and severe study, yet to their adepts bring little, save pride and ostentation. But in this, the humblest and the youngest may become students, and find blessed fruits springing up, and ripening in their own bosoms. It is doubtless evident to you that I speak of the science of doing good. Yet I would not confine the term to its common acceptation of almsgiving. This is but a single branch of the science, though an important one. A more extensive and correct explanation is, to strive to increase the happiness and diminish the amount of misery among our fellow creatures, by every means in our power. This is a powerful antidote to selfishness, that baneful and adhesive disease of our corrupt nature, or, to borrow the forcible words of Paschal, that 'bias toward ourselves which is the spring of all disorder.' Benevolence multiplies our sources of pleasure, for in the happiness of all whom we bless, we are blessed also. It elevates our enjoyments, by calling into exercise generous motives and disinterested affections.

"Lord Bacon, that star of the first magnitude among the constellations of mind, says that he early took all knowledge to be his province.' Will you not take all goodness to be your province? It is the wiser choice, for 'knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.' Knowledge must' perish in the using, but goodness, like its author, is eternal.

"Dear young friend, whose eye, undimmed by the sorrows of time, is now resting upon this page, suffer me, from the experience of an older and earth-worn traveller, to urge you to bind yourself an apprentice to the trade of doing good. He will be your Master whose mercies are new every morning, and fresh every moment.' He will give you a tender and sustaining example who came to 'seek and to save that which was lost.' They, too, will be your teachers, those bright-winged ministering spirits, who hold gentle guardianship over us, their weaker brethren, lest we 'dash our foot against a stone;' whose harps are tremulous with joy when one sinner repenteth. The wise and good of all realms and nations, those who have gone to rest, and those who still labor, you may count as your companions, a vast and glorious assembly."

The following picture of a venerable old lady, whom the author had known and loved in early life, is very vivid and impressive:

"When I look back upon the sheltered and flowery path of childhood one image is ever there, vivid and cherished above all others. It is of hoary temples and a brow furrowed by more than fourscore winters, yet to me more lovely than the bloom of beauty or the freshness of youth, for it is associated with the benevolence of an angel. Among the tireless acts of bounty which rendered her name a watchword in the cells of poverty, and her house a beacon light to the broken in heart, were the gift of books, and the education of indigent children. On stated days, the