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BRIEF EXTRACTS.

Henry IV. used to keep his crown by him, on his bolster, while he slept. Being once very ill, and falling into a deep sleep, his attendants supposed him dead: on which, his eldest son came and took the crown away. The king, waking, unexpectedly missed his crown, and enquired what was become of it: when his son brought it again, and restored it on his bended knee.

Man is, by nature, in a deep sleep; a sleep of spiritual insensibility and death. He knows not that the crown is fallen from his head but, when awakened by the Spirit of God, he at once misses his crown, and enquires after it at the throne of grace. And, as surely as he feels his loss of it, and beseeches God to restore it, so surely shall it be given him again.

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ANAXAGORAS, the Ionian, being asked, to what end he was born, replied, To contemplate the un, moon, and skies." Had he been a Christian, he would have answered, "To glorify God, to be glorified by him."

Wrap up ever so good a ffint in silk or satin, and not a spark of its latent fire will appear. But bruise it with a hammer, or strike it with a steel, the dormant sparks will shew themselves.-In prosperity, the graces of a saint too often lie hid. In adversity, they shine forth with light and heat, like a flint in collission with a steel.

The longer we neglect writing to an absent friend, the less mind we have to set about it. So, the more we neglect private prayer, and closet communion with God, the more shy we grow in our approaches to him. Nothing breeds a greater strangeness between the soul and God, than the restraining of praying before him. And nothing would renew the blessed intimacy, if God himself, the neg lected party, did not, as it were, send us a letter of expostulation from heaven, and sweetly chide us for our negligence. Then we melt; then we kindle; and the blissful intercourse gradually opens as usual.

MORAL DEPARTMENT.

LADIES,

SELECTED.

AN ADDRESS TO MOTHERS.

ALTHOUGH there should be nothing like gallantry in the address of an old man, you may expect what is far better, much sincerity, with an earnest desire of promoting your happiness, with that of your offspring.

The maternal, is at once the most tender, and interesting relation in nature; and if dignity of character is to be decided by its usefulness, the mother, who faithfully discharges her duty to her

children, may justly claim one of the first seats in the order of society. A healthy constitution, with its attendant blessings; a feeble habit of body, with its painful effects; may often be traced to the nursery, and imputed to proper or to improper treatment in the early period of infancy or childhood. But advice on that head I leave to the physician, to whose department it properly belongs, while I consider you in a more interesting light—as entrusted with forming the minds of your offspring, and of giving to these moral plants that early bias, which, in a great measure, determines their after growth. It is in the nursery that the seeds of these virtues may be sown with the greatest advantage; the progress of which will abundantly reward your labours, and at the same time adorn and enrich society. You readily see that in order to effect all this, the business must be retained in your own, and not committed to mercenary hands. It was for this purpose that the God of nature inspired you with that exquisite affection for your offspring, which is at once an excitement to, and a security for the performance of that important trust: For the discharge of which, your first care should be, firmly to establish your authority, on the basis of esteem and affection. For that purpose, the proper application of the following concise maxim will be found of unfailing efficacy, viz. KEEP FAITH WITH YOUR CHILDREN. Let faith be violated any where else, rather than in the view of those little impressive beings on whose delicate minds it must have the most fatal and lasting influence. You will hear with indignation a suggestion that your child. should learn to sport with truth, from your example; and yet you hazard that whenever you violate your engagements to him. Be therefore cautious how, or what you promise, and still more reserved in your threats. But the promise or the threat having passed your lips, let it be, like the word of the Most High, established in the heavens, and immutable as the oracles of truth. Your child will soon discover it; and when that is the case, will cease his troublesome importunities, and your government will be easy and pleasant. Let me urge you to this, with all the ardor of affectionate zeal; as it is the point which is most interesting to yourselves, and to your children, and that on which you are most liable to err.

A child of a year old will never attempt to remove the solid wall of his apartment, to come at the object of his wishes in the adjoining room; if nothing more than a curtain intervenes, he will remove and even sport with it, for his pleasure. Let your authority be the "solid wall," and not the " loose curtain." Your

authority being thus well established, your next object will be to implant in the minds of your children that principal of moral rectitude, which is to guide them through life, secure them against the allurements of vice, and in the paths of virtue. With that view, improve the first dawn of reason to make them acquainted with the great Author of their being and Source of every blessing. But to effect this, with advantage, let your instructions be attended with the pleasures of sense, which are peculiarly captivating to the minds of children. If you present them with a flower whose beauty and fragrance they admire, or a species of fruit delicious to the taste; improve the occasion, by instructing them that what affords them so much pleasure, is at once an evidence of the being of the infinite wisdom and goodness of their Father in Heaven. The profusion of pleasing objects, which the God of Nature has every where afforded us, will leave you at no loss for subjects to renew your instructions. It will be considered by your children an amusement, rather than a task: and they will always recur to it with pleasure. While inculcating the lessons of piety, suffer not your countenance to be clouded with any thing like gloom; but shew by your cheerfulness, that you are pleased with the subject, and wish them to participate in your pleasure. Thus will they catch the sacred flame of piety from your countenance, at the same time that they are taught it from your lips.

Keep far from the view of your children all appearance of enthusiasm and superstition. Teach them, that piety is neither the ebullitions of the passions, nor the groundless fears of superstition:

That it consists in a calm, rational and pleasing sense of our relation to the Parent of the Universe, with a desire of imitating his example, by promoting the comfort and happiness of all around us. Teach them, that the author of their being is a kind indulgent Parent, who has made every thing beautiful in its season, and is as well pleased with their childish playfulness as with the innocent sportings of the lamb-Frequently turn their attention to the visible heavens, and teach them to read there the infinite wisdom, power and goodness of Him who has stretched them out as a curtain. That all nature is an expression of the love of God, and its numberless beauties and blessings, the silent instruments in his hands to bring them acquainted with him, and the happiness which he has provided for them.

Beware of burthening the minds of your children, by obliging them to commit to memory certain propositions which neither they, you, nor the wisest of your teachers, could ever explain. They

will prove like indigestable substances taken into the stomach, which prevent the nourishment to be expected from proper food,

Let your instruction be like their food, plain and simple, level to their capacities, and yet sufficient to render them virtuous, amiable and happy. Teach them to pray, rather as a habit of the mind, than as a formal service to be performed at particular seasons. The latter, however, is not to be neglected, and for that purpose, you will sometimes pray with as well as for them. I cannot conceive of a scene more sublime, and pathetic, than ́one, which after more than sixty years interval, I recollect with tears of affectionate gratitude. The pious mother of a numerous offspring, on her knees, surrounded by her children in a similar attitude, pouring out the fulness of her affectionate heart in prayer to their common parent for blessings on her offspring. How impressive must this have been on the tender hearts of little children! and how naturally increase their affection for their earthly, and reverence for their Heavenly Parent!

When a celebrated painter was asked the question, "Why he bestowed so much labour on his pieces?" his reply was, that he PAINTED FOR ETERNITY.-This would come with infinitely more propriety from your lips, than it did from his.-For as the objects of your care are designed for eternity, so the effects of your pious labours, will be like them, IMMORTAL.

ON GREATNESS OF SOUL.

GREATNESS of soul consists, not only in courage enlightened by jus tice and humanity, virtues without which courage is seldom any thing else than ferocity; but likewise in a certain elevation, which, setting us above every kind of weakness, renders us, in a manner, inaccessible to it. Thus the brave man becomes intrepid amidst dangers, indifferent in the most terrible misfortunes, and tranquil in those trying moments when the most distinguished courage is apt to fail. "The spectacle most worthy the attention of the gods," says Seneca," and that which they contemplate with the greatest approbation, is a virtuous man struggling against ill fortune, and raising himself superior to it."

Innumerable instances of the various kinds of magnanimity, or greatness of soul, are recorded in ancient and modern history. We shall extract a few of these as they may be pleasing to most of our readers.

Leonidas having, with three hundred men only, disputed the pass of Thermopyla against the whole army of Xerxes, and being killed

in the conflict, Xerxes, by the advice of Mardonius, one of his generals, caused his dead body to be hung upon a gallows; thus making the intended dishonour of his enemy his own immortal shame. But some time after, Xerxes being defeated, and Mardonius slain, one of the principal citizens of Ægina addressed himself to Pausanius, desiring him to avenge the indignity which Mardonius and Xerxes had shown to Leonidas, by treating the body of Mardonius after the same manner. As a farther motive for doing so, he added, that,by thus satisfying the manes of those who were killed at Thermopylæ, he would immortalize his own name throughout all Greece, and make his memory dear to the latest posterity. "Carry thy base counsels elsewhere,” replied Pausanius; "thou must have a very wrong notion of true glory, to imagine, that the way for me to acquire it is to imitate the barbarians. If the esteem of the people of Ægina is not to be purchased but by such a proceeding, I shall be content with preserving that of the Lacedemonians only: among whom the base nnd ungenerous pleasure of revenge is never put in competition with that of showing clemency and moderation to an enemy, especially after his death. As for my departed countrymen, they are sufficiently avenged by the death of the many thousand Persians slain on the same spot in the last engagement."

The inhabitants of Privernum being subdued and taken prisoners after a revolt, one of them was asked by Plautinus, a Roman senator, who advised to put them all to death, what punishment he and his fellow captives deserved. He answered with great intrepidity: "We deserve that punishment which is due to men who are jealous of their liberty, and think themselves worthy of it." Plautinus, perceiving that this answer exasperated some of the senators, endeavoured to prevent the ill effects of it, by putting a milder question: "How would you behave," says he, "if Rome should pardon you?" "Our conduct," replied the generous captive, "depends upon yours. If the peace you grant be an honourable one, you may be assured of a constant fidelity on our part: if the terms of it be hard and dishonourable, lay no stress on our adherence to you." Some of the judges considered these words as insolent; but the wiser part, perceiving in them a great degree of magnanimity, exclaimed that a nation, whose only desire was liberty, and their only fear that of losing it, was worthy to become a Roman. Accordingly a decree passed in favour of the prisoners, and Privernum was declared a municipium. Thus the bold sincerity of one man saved his country, and gained it the privilege of being incorporated into the Roman state.

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