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feelings of friendship and regard. Her reward for these exertions will be, speedily to win their confidence and love, greatly to gratify her husband, and cement still stronger his affection, and to cause a spirit of harmony and love to prevail and shed its cheerful sunshine throughout all her domestic associations.

"Affection of our kindred is not inconsistent with the fondest attachment of the heart to a husband or a wife. Do not, therefore, encourage that littleness and pride, which would lead you to think yourself defrauded of something that was your own, when you see any tender regard paid to them. It is a mean jealousy of temper that makes us prompt to consider ourselves rivalled. It is a base pride that leads us to put an invidious construction on those signs of respect and esteem which are shown to others. Let married persons guard against such a cause of unhappiness to themselves, by considering that the distribution of affection does not necessarily diminish its quantity, but that it is even capable of increasing, as the objects on which it is exercised multiply. Conjugal affection can indeed be shared only by two persons, but this may grow and strengthen, without any loss sustained to it from the cultivation of filial or fraternal affection. While the bonds of matrimony must not be suffered to dissolve those of filial piety, it may be well, however, to suggest this hint to married persons :Let them avoid, as far as is consistent with duty of relations, that kind of manner in their treatment to

them, which is calculated to awaken jealousy in the married partner. Through an indiscreet neglect of this rule of prudence, the visit of a relation has sometimes been the epoch of misery to a couple, who had hitherto lived in harmony. Cannot we be glad to see a parent, a sister, or a brother, without reducing a wife or a husband to a cipher in the house, during their stay in it? Is it prudent to be so profuse in the expressions of our regard for them, as to lead the partner of our life to have an interest in their departure ?”

Another duty devolving upon the wife, is to assist her husband in accumulating that property which is essential to the support and comfort of the family. This will undoubtedly be considered a strange requisition, by all those ladies who suppose it belongs exclusively to their husbands to labor and toil to acquire riches for them to squander in every species of extravagance their vanity may suggest. But to the thinking and the discreet, this duty will not be considered improper in its nature, or uncalled for in practice. It is not, of course, required or thought necessary, that the wife should go into the counting-room, or the workshop, or the field, as a laborer. All which this duty enjoins, is that the wife, in her proper sphere, should co-operate with the exertions of her husband for the general good of the family. She should study to exercise pru dence and economy in her expenditures for herself' and family, and aid in preserving, not in squander ing that income which is the fruit of his exertions.

An intelligent woman can discover numerous op portunities for the exercise of industry, frugality, and economy, much to the aid of her husband and the benefit of her household. The wives of the Romans, in the earlier and better days of that nation, set a worthy example for future ages. Columella says, that "the Roman husbands, having completed the labors of the day, entered their houses free from all care, and there enjoyed perfect repose. The most beautiful woman depended for distinction on her economy, and endeavors to assist in crowning her husband's diligence with prosperity. All was in common between them: nothing was thought to belong more to one than another. The wife, by her assiduity and activity within doors, equalled and seconded the industry and labor of her husband."

It is especially necessary that the wife should exercise frugality and economy, and exert herself in every consistent manner to aid her husband, when misfortunes have stripped him of his possessions. The woman who, in such a case, gives way to despair, and sinks into a dull lethargy without life or ambition, is but a dead weight. But she who is worthy of being connected with a kind, intelligent, and persevering husband, so far from sinking into utter hopelessness when overtaken by adversity, will awake to new life, and develop new capabilities, and become the comforter and supporter of her husband, and strive, to the utmost of her ability, to assist him in recovering from the

most bitter blasts of adversity. There are few pecuniary misfortunes so great, that a man of character, intelligence, and perseverance, aided and cheered by the exertions and encouragement of a faithful wife, cannot recover from them.

CHAPTER III.

HABITS OF A WIFE.

"Those thousand decencies which daily flow
From all her words and actions."

WHO is not aware of the power and influence of habit? Who is not conscious of that tendency in human nature, which induces us to continue acting as we have acted, and to follow in the footsteps we have already trod? When habits first begin to form, they have not the strength of the spider's web-the least obstruction, the least opposition. will destroy all their power. But as they continue their sway, they increase in strength, until at length they become massive chains and fetters, which no earthly power can break asunder. Happy they whose habits are all strictly proper; but alas for those who have become habituated to practices not characterized by diligence, neatness, propriety, and virtue! They are in a bondage, than which none can be more wearisome and grievous.

When a change takes place in our circumstances-when new objects surround us-when new duties and obligations rest upon us, and our feelings run in channels different from those to which

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