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tional, moral, and healthful amusements, which are within the reach of their circumstances. He who keeps his family so closely employed, either in labor or study, as to preclude proper recreation, is blind to his own interest and to their welfare. These are topics, however, which will be more maturely considered in another branch of these Essays.

Another duty devolving upon the husband, is to set proper examples before his family. From his station, he will naturally exercise a great influence upon those intimately connected with him. They will look up to him, and to no small degree imbibe his spirit, manners, and habits. Hence whatever he would have them become in their characteristics, he must first become himself. Would he have the wife, the children, the domestics, be industrious, economical, and prudent? He must himself exhibit these virtues. If he would have the family affable, polite, and well behaved in all respects, his daily walk before them must be of a corresponding character. When he is low, and vulgar, and ungentlemanly, in his usual deportment before them, how can he consistently anticipate that they will rise superior to himself?

So far from being indifferent in regard to the nature of his duties, and negligent in their discharge, the husband should be deeply interested in this subject. It should be his aim to seek out and ascertain all the duties which devolve upon him, as a husband, a parent, a citizen, and a Christian.

And having ascertained them, it should be his firm resolve to discharge them faithfully, in no other fear but the fear of God, and with no other object but the welfare of those placed by Providence under his protection, and the good of mankind at large.

As method is very essential in the efficient discharge of duty, I insert a few rules from the pen of Timothy Flint.

“ If a system of living and occupation were to be framed for human beings, founded on the exposition of their nature, it would be something like this.

“ 1. So many hours a day would require to be dedicated by every individual in health to the exercise of his muscular and nervous systems, in labor calculated to give scope to these functions. The reward of obeying this requisite of their nature would be health, and a joyous animal existence; the punisament of neglect is disease, low spirits, and death.

"2. So many hours a day should be spent in the sedulous employment of the knowing and reflecting faculties; in studying the qualities of external objects, and their relations; also the nature of all animated beings, and their relations. The reward of this conduct would be an incalculably great increase of pleasure.

"3. So many hours a day ought to be devoted to the cultivation and gratification of our moral sentiments; that is to say, in exercising these in harmony with intellect, and especially in acquiring

the habit of admiring, loving, and yielding obedience to the Creator and his institutions.

"This last object is of vast importance. Intellect is barren of practical fruit, however rich it may be in knowledge, until it is fired and prompted to act by moral sentiment. In my view, knowledge by itself is worthless and impotent, compared with what it becomes when vivified by elevated emotions. It is not enough that intellect is informed; the moral faculties must simultaneously co-operate-yielding obedience to the precepts which the intellect recognises to be true."

CHAPTER VII.

PLACE OF ABODE.

"The world was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change,

And pleased with novelty, might be indulged."

As the responsibility of selecting or locating the place of abode devolves principally upon the husband, a few remarks upon this subject may not be amiss. I am aware that in the estimation of many, the place of residence, the location of the dwelling, and the convenience of its structure, are matters of trifling importance. But let it be remembered that it is from a multiplicity of small comforts, each, perhaps, trivial in itself, that the great mass of human. enjoyments is made up. Hence a general neglect of these small sources of comfort, will detract very materially from the sum of happiness which we experience-and we are thus admonished to attend with due precaution to small matters as well as to great.

The place of residence will, of course, depend much upon the occupation or profession which is pursued. While the mechanic, the merchant, the professional man, from the nature of their occupation, will take up their abode in central and populous places, the farmer will generally prefer living

upon his own estate, and in a neighborhood more sparsely peopled. The tilling of the earth is the most natural and primitive, and by far the most useful employment in which man can engage. It is the nursing-mother upon which all other branches of human industry depend for support. When agriculture is neglected, other employments are speedily paralyzed; for when the farmer fails to afford sufficient material for feeding and clothing community, the other classes must either become themselves tillers of the soil, or experience want and distress. Agriculture is the most healthy, and generally the most profitable employment pursued. Although wealth is not usually so speedily acquired as it sometimes is in other pursuits, yet taken together, there is no branch of human occupation which yields so certain and permanent a return to industry. Indeed, it is the source of all wealth, both individual and national. And it is to be regretted that there is such an evident disinclination to engage in this most praiseworthy business, among great numbers of those who are peculiarly fitted for it by their habits and circumstances. Although there are some engaged in agriculture, who reside in cities and villages at a distance from their estates, yet the generality of those in this business live upon their own farms, and personally superintend their own affairs-being satisfied of the truth of Dr. Franklin's homely, yet well-approved adage:

"He who by the plough would thrive,
Himself must either hold or drive."

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