nevolence which costs him nothing. If we would avoid this, we must be content to see the power of self-control at first very feeble. By apportioning its trials to its strength, it will grow until the enlightenment of the intellect and the increased appreciation of enjoyments other than sensual confirm it into a ruling principle of action.

Passing over appetites, such as that for intoxicating liquors, which may be called artificial, since they are acquired, and which spring only from that general desire of excitement which a good education would otherwise satisfy, it seems not unsuitable, in this place, to refer to another powerful animal impulse, more properly a characteristic of mature life, but which requires much care in the management of the ideas connected with it at an earlier period than is commonly supposed. The impulse and ideas of sex form an essential part of human nature, which, whether it be attended to or neglected, will be sure to develop itself. There is a miserably false delicacy in parents and teachers which prevents them from communicating with children on this subject. Natural inquiries are parried and baffled, or answered with falsehood, by those who might state the truth with perfect purity and safety; and in consequence, the ideas which can not be excluded, are obtained through channels which convey corruption along with the information. The mischiefs of this course are fearful. The matters which are so carefully avoided by instructors and parents, are freely talked over and joked about by servants and elder playfellows. Unspeakable evils to mind and body are the consequence. The instructor, or the parent, must often know what is going forward; but he willfu'ly shuts his eyes to what seems irremediable; yet, when the son, or pupil, becomes openly profligate, the guardian of his youth thinks himself only unfortunate, as if it was not the natural and necessary consequence of his own criminal neglect. There is no part of education which has been not merely so much neglected, but so resolutely avoided, as this; and hence, there is no one source from which a deeper and broader current of vico and misery flows through society. The destructive effects of that perpetual movement under the surface, which the decent hypocrisies of society keep out of view, exceed infinitely in amount its more public and glaring consequences. But even these latter-embodied, as it were, in one wretched class, living examples of physical and mental ruin-are so appalling, that society could receive no greater blessing, than some purer and more enlightened educational management which would stop them at the source.

This wants simply that the difficulty shall be fairly grappled with, and that instructors shall not willfully surrender any part of the confidence of their pupils, by want of frankness upon matters which others, with different feelings, will be found ready to discuss. They must speak unreservedly, seriously, and with perfect purity of thought, so as to keep away the piquant and attractive associations of secrecy and jocularity. The physical and moral bearings of the subject should be fully explained: and thus, by ideas addressed to the reason, while the feelings and imagination are at rest, we may plant the only real safeguard of purity in the breast. Minds, whose natural curiosity is thus satisfied, without any prurient excitement of imagination, and who have received through the intellect just notions of the moral and physical evils of unlawful indulgence, would, from reason and taste alike, repel the communications of profligate companions.

In the management of children at the earliest period of life, we have to con

tend with an irritability which is then the necessary and useful attendant of their fragile structure and helpless condition; but which, with a little neglect in childhood, will grow into an uncontrollable bad temper in mature life. The cries of an infant are the language of nature, given to supply the place of the yet impossible words, in communicating its wants to its protectors. Its first cries are from pain of some kind. The moment it is relieved they cease. When the cries for assistance are disregarded or rudely repressed, the first feeling of anger arises at the disappointment of the expected relief. The cries are increased with more bitterness and intensity, until they are perhaps hushed by terror or physical exhaustion. If the first attendant of an infant be herself illtempered, she can hardly fail to make the child so. Her changeful moods, her fondling and harshness, will perpetually disappoint his expectations. The occasions of ill-humor will be frequent; and his ill-humor, being troublesome, is likely to excite hers. Thus his outbreaks will continually call down the very treatment most likely to confirm them into habits. The proper management of the temper requires that the child should be surrounded from the first by a steady and enlightened affection. The first movements of its irritable nature require all the softness and patience of a mother. The occasions of irritability should, as far as possible, be foreseen and avoided. Clothes too tight, or not sufficiently warm; unnecessary dressings and undressings-these, and a hundred apparent trifles, which might be prevented, are to the child pain, and nothing more. When pain does exist from any cause, it should be at once attended to, promptly relieved, and the irritation set at rest, by affectionate soothing. Every instant that irritation, arising from a real cause, is suffered to continue, tends to fix it in the character. This, however, is never likely where there is affection acting upon principle. The first gleams of thought in the child will check his disposition to be angry with those who love him. As he grows, the operation of a uniform system of treatment will teach him to regulate his expectations of the future. Indulgence, however, has its peculiar danger. When the cries of the infant procure relief from pain, crying becomes associated with the satisfaction of its wants, and is resorted to when there is no pain, for the gratification of some whim, such as to ill-managed children are occurring incessantly. If this be given way to, the association is confirmed, and crying becomes the regular mode of obtaining what is desired. It is found to be an instrument of power, and it is used tyrannically. The mother and the household are subjected to no easy yoke. In this manner, unwise affection is as likely to spoil the temper as capricious severity. We must avoid both. A practiced eye can distinguish between the cry which springs from real pain, and the mechanical imitation of it which is used for the gratification of a whim. Pain should be affectionately attended to; but a fit of crying for a plaything or a sweetmeat should never obtain the least satisfaction. If it is found useless, it will soon be discontinued, and cheerfulness and good humor, as more effectual means of gratification, will become the habits. Before we reach this point, we may have to witness some bursts of temper, and no little violent sobbing; but these will rapidly disappear. We need not fear the growth of unkind feelings in the child's mind from such treatment. He will soon feel the real affection which dictates it, and which he feels in so many other ways. His sagacity, 80 acute in all that relates to himself, will discover that there is a real anxiety to make him happy. This will be certain to call forth the best feelings of his na