the young letter-writer is to be correct, clear, and concise; and, above all, to avoid exaggerated sentiments. When young children are separated, it is an excellent exercise of the understanding, and preserves the feelings of affection, to allow them to write to each other.

The most painful and difficult part of the duty of a teacher is the necessity of punishing a fault. In the first place, it is of absolute importance that there should be a perfect certainty that the child has really committed the fault before even the charge be brought against it. It is a fatal error, subversive of all respect and obedience, rashly to tax an innocent person; an unfounded imputation is misery to a sensitive and delicate mind, and has been known to produce fatal consequences.

If the error be proved, and if it be a first offence, it is well to try first the language of mild persuasion; this, and the sight of the sorrow they have inflicted will sometimes produce in well-brought-up children perfect contrition and repentance.

If a child be obdurate, solitary confinement or separation from the rest of the children may have a salutary effect. Great care should always be taken that the punishment be not of a nature to rouse resentful feelings; the child should see that the infliction of it is truly painful to the teacher.

Children who are lazy, or unable to learn their allotted lessons, should never be punished by being doubly tasked. It may be that the mind, from some cause, is incapable of the effort, and might suffer from increased exertion. This must be carefully ascertained; and, if necessary, their tasks should be diminished. Even if the neglect be from mere indolence, learning should never be rendered odious to them. It is better that their books should be taken away, and that they should be compelled to sit without employment while the rest are busily engaged at their studies. Nothing is so tedious to the young as compulsory idleness.

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ERRORS OF YOUTH.

One of the deepest offences that a child can be guilty of is falsehood. This fault requires to be treated rather with sorrow than anger. No tender parent, no earnest teacher but must weep over the child who has told a lie. The most serious means must be taken to explain the fearful nature of the sin, and the offender must be kept apart from the rest, as the marked object of the anger of God, till by prayer and by obvious penitence the sin may be pardoned.

Children, from the earliest age to the time when they are old enough to mix with the world, should never be allowed to turn people into ridicule. In time they will learn to sacrifice a friend for the sake of saying a good thing if this tendency be not repressed, and the heart will be hardened to all generous feeling. The pleasure of being admired will induce a child to imitate some peculiarity or personal defect in a visitor just departed, but no good mother will suffer such an exhibition. It is not well to allow children to talk of company after they have departed, or to talk to them when they are present. They should be permitted and encouraged to listen to the conversation, if rational and improving; but if it be frivolous, a wise mother will send her daughters out of the room.

At an early age it is very necessary, in a useful education, that girls as well as their brothers should be taught the nature and value of figures. Before a child knows the form of a numeral, she may be taught to understand the use of numbers, and learn, as a pastime, to add them together by the head; and thus the difficulty will be lessened when she has to work sums on a slate. A readiness in calculation is of incalculable use to all women, and can only be acquired early in life.

As soon as they can possibly understand it, it is advisable for parents to commence the education of their children in money matters. Many mothers, either from an idea that it is good economy, or from a desire to keep their children in subjection, choose to retain the sole manage

ment of the expenditure in their own hands, purchasing every thing for the family, and supplying the children with clothes, and all things needful, except money.

This is, in truth, neither good economy nor sound education. It is very necessary that children should learn, when young, the value and the use of money; they should be taught to spend it as well as to save it.

For this purpose, at a proper age, children should have a fixed allowance, proportioned to their years, and to the means of their parents. This should be given to them quarterly, and at the end of each quarter they should be required to produce an exact account of the expenditure of the money. By this plan the parents will have an opportunity of advising, reproving, or commending the mode in which they have employed it. The children will also have the pleasure of following their own taste and judgment, restrained by the prudence their limited means will enforce. The charitable will learn to deny themselves a luxury that they may be enabled to do a kindness; and the thoughtless will acquire habits of reflection, when they suffer destitution in consequence of extravagance.

But when a judicious mother looks over these quarterly accounts, she must be careful to give her admonitions and counsels with gentleness and discretion, for they will be better received if they are not in the tone of compulsory orders.

Frugality without meanness can only be acquired in youth, and is, especially in the middle stations of life, a quality so valuable that it nearly approaches to a virtue. The well-taught, frugal child will not hesitate to give away a toy or an apple, though it would not waste or destroy them.

No mother or teacher should ever permit procrastination in trifling matters, lest the habit should be formed and influence the important duties of life. A child should be compelled to learn a lesson, to sew on a string, to mend a glove immediately when it is required. No excu

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PROCRASTINATION.

must be heard of waiting till after a walk, or till some other employment is completed; it must be done then, that the habit of promptness may be acquired.

It is one of the fatal errors of life to flatter ourselves that it will be easier to do some work to-morrow than it is to do it to-day. To-morrow brings the same fancy and the same delay, and thus days and years pass; good resolutions, once deferred, will fade away, and the end of life arrives before the great business of life is begun.

Even in the simple matter of letter-writing, it is best to enforce a rule that if a letter requires an answer at all, it should be answered as soon as received. Many persons can bear testimony that an unanswered letter has hung upon them like an incubus day after day; and has at last been ill answered, if not entirely neglected.

The education of girls in the middle classes of life is incomplete unless they acquire some knowledge, practical as well as theoretical, of the important accomplishment of domestic management. It sometimes happens that an active mother is unwilling to relinquish the bustle and importance of absolute government, by allowing her daughters to share her duties. This, to say the least, is impolitic, and it is also unjust and unkind not to subject her children to a regular apprenticeship to that vocation, which they must be called upon to fulfil in future

life.

The proper mode of education in a family of daughters is, for each in turn to be called on to fulfil the housekeeping responsibilities for a week or a month. The girl in office should keep the keys, market, order, make out accounts, and fulfil every duty usually performed by the mother.

This practice will naturally create in young girls an emulation to excel, to show their economy, their accuracy, or their industry. Thus prepared for the world, into whatever station of life they may be thrown, they will be equally able to direct a household, or to work themselves;

to instruct their servants, or, in need, to aid them in their duties; to buy with judgment, and to regulate, their expenditure discreetly. It requires as much care and economy to live suitably on £500 as on £50 a year; and a well-taught, earnest woman will always know how to live within her means, however small they may be.

Such are the useful lessons of social life. Good sense is the best possession of a woman, as the wisest of men has accurately described in the useful qualities of the woman whose "price is above rubies;" and to this day such a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband."

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