CHAPTER IX. ON THE TREATMENT OF SERVANTS. "NEXT to your children," says an admired writer, "your servants are your nearest dependents and to promote their good, spiritually as well as temporally, is your indispensable duty. Let them always join your family devotions, and endeavour to make them spend their Sabbath properly." 66 I have heard an old domestic remark, the worst mistresses a servant ever lived with are young married women. They are unreasonable," said she, "in their commands: they expect too much; nor do they know rightly when to commend or when to blame." In your manner to your servants, be firm without being severe, and kind without being familiar. Never be in the habit of conversing with them, unless on business, or on some point connected with their improvement. But, with this reserve and distance of manner, be particularly careful to maintain kindness, gentleness, and respect for their feelings. Their patience is often unnecessarily exercised, and their temper wantonly irritated. "I have been sometimes shocked," says Mrs. Chapone, "with the want of politeness by which masters and mistresses provoke impertinence from their servants. I remember seeing a lady, who filled every station of life with honour both to her head and heart, attending the dying bed of an old domestic who had lived for thirty years in her service. "How do you find yourself to-day, Mary?" said her mistress taking hold of the withered hand which was held out. "Is that you, my darling mistress ?" and a beam of joy overspread the old woman's face. "O yes!" she added, looking up, "it is you, my kind, my mannerly mistress!" The poor old creature said no more; but in my mind she had, by this last simple word, expressed volumes of panegyric on her amiable mistress. Let your commands to your servants be consistent and reasonable; and then firmly, but mildly, insist on obedience to them. I really think that common complaint—“ My servants never remember what I tell them to do," might in a great degree be obviated. Let them see that you are particular, and that you will not pass over any neglect of orders; and when they find that this decisive manner is accompanied by mildness, kindness, and consideration, and that you are not to be disobliged with impunity, they will soon take care to remember what you command them to do. A little effort very easily remedies a bad memory. "Never keep a servant, however excellent they may be in their station, whom you know to be guilty of immorality." When servants are sick, be particularly kind and considerate to them. The poor dependent creatures have nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to: and their pale looks should be always a claim on your sympathy. It is very disheartening to poor servants, to be continually found fault with. Praise and reward them when you can: human nature will not bear constant chiding. The great secret in governing the temper of servants is to govern your own. Do not let the fact of its being "only a servant" whom you are addressing make you negligent of kindness and courtesy. "Honour all men" is a divine command; and the really benignant nature will sympathise in the feeling that impelled a gifted writer to exclaim on seeing the humble deportment of a servant; "The look which says, 'Behold-behold I am thy servant,' disarms me at once of the power of a master." CHAPTER X. ON THE MANAGEMENT AND EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. A LOVELY infant now crowns your mutual wishes. What a bond of union! What an incentive to tenderness! Lives there a man who can look at the mother of this pretty babe, and not feel his heart irresistibly drawn towards her? While the simple reflection, "This is the father of my child!" should make the husband to his wife the dearest object in the world.— "Thus, for the parent's sake, the child is dear, A little child is an uncommonly interesting object!—An immortal soul confined in such a fairy form; a little being for whom the blood of Jesus was shed; an epitome of God's greatest, noblest work; "a miniature pledge," as our great poet Goldsmith says, |