debate.

Gentle and wise remonstrance may most probably make him all you wish. Upbraid him, and make his home uncomfortable; and a hundred to one he is lost to you for

ever.

If husband and wife keep within their proper department, if they confine themselves to the sphere allotted to each by Providence and nature, there need be no disputes about power and superiority, and there will be none. They have no opposite, no separate interests, and therefore there can be no just ground for opposition of conduct.

Let me intreat your particular attention, gentle lady, to the following advice.Whenever any little discord or coldness takes place between you and your husband, remember that concession is your duty rather than his, and never close your eyes in sleep till you have endeavoured to obtain a reconciliation. Tell him the resolution you have formed; and then you may good-humouredly add, that perhaps he would not find you so very forgiving, but really you should dread breaking through your determination. Again let me intreat you to adopt this plan: it may appear trifling and immaterial, but you do not, you cannot without experience, know

the wide-spreading good it may produce, the wide-spreading ills it may prevent.

Many a matrimonial dispute occurs, not so much from an unwillingness to give up the contested point, as from a dread of being conquered. Beware of the slightest approach to contradiction, and be assured every little dispute between man and wife, even in itself of the most trivial nature, is dangerous. It forces good humour out of its channel, undermines affection, and insidiously, though perhaps insensibly, wears out and, at last, entirely destroys that cordiality which is the life and soul of matrimonial felicity.

Without intending it, I find I have prolonged my remarks on this subject to an unusual length. I will now therefore endeavour in a few words to sum up the whole matter. Do you wish, gentle lady, to make your husband good, mild, tender, amiable; in short, all that he should be? Let me whisper to you the secret: Endeavour by prayer and every effort to be instrumental in making him a religious man, and the work is accomplished.

And now let me for a moment indulge in the blessed supposition that you are both in the fold of Christ, and heirs together

H

of the grace of life. Then, in truth, happy was the day you were born, and happy the day which united you! And O! thrice blessed will be the hour when the everlast ing gates shall be lifted up, and you shall both be "presented faultless before the throne of God's glory with exceeding joy!" (Jude 24.)

CHAPTER III.

ON PRUDENCE AND DECORUM.

THOUGH a woman before her marriage may be admired for her gaiety, her dancing, dress, painting, singing, &c., yet after it we expect her character to display something more substantial. To a man who must spend all his days in her company, these little superficial decorations would speedily become insipid and unimportant. Love can be preserved only by the qualities of the heart, and esteem secured by the domestic virtues.

A man does not want to be dazzled in his matrimonial connexion, or to possess a partner who seeks the admiration of coxcombs or beaux. He wants a person who will kindly divide and alleviate his cares, and prudently arrange his household. He seeks not a coquette, a fashionist, a flirt; but a judicious assistant, companion, and friend.

"On the day of her marriage," says an admired writer, "a woman's tour of gaiety

should end." In one of the Gentoo countries, during the wedding-day, a large fire is made, and the bride enters with a little basket in her hand, containing all her ornaments, rude and simple as they are—shells, beads, &c.— and flings them into it; intimating her intention of assuming for the future the dress as well as character of a matron—Oh! that our British matrons would take a hint from these wild and untutored Indians!

How indecorous, offensive, and sinful, is it to see a woman exercising authority over her husband, and saying, "I will have it so. It shall be done as I like." But I should hope the number of those who adopt this unbecoming and disgraceful manner is so small as to render it unnecessary for me to enlarge on the subject.

Never join in any jest or laugh against your husband. He may be a plain and insignificant, even a ridiculous, man: be it so; why did you marry him? You should have known all those defects before marriage. It is now too late: and as wife, self (not to say a word of duty) calls on you to hide his faults; and, whenever you possibly can, to bring him forward and make him of importance.

Assiduously conceal his faults, and speak