him to display his good manners, that we shall effect our purpose; but by accustoming him to exercise habitual kindness and civility towards his companions, and those with whom he lives. With all our care, however, we are not to expect that the manners of children will be superior to those of the persons with whom they chiefly associate; for, in nothing is it more true that “we are all a sort of chamelions, and, still, take a tincture from things around us." On this account, as on every other, it is of importance that children should witness no vulgar habits in the nursery, and that the conversation, between the nurses themselves, should be guarded and correct.

But here it must be remarked, that in our earnestness to render our children pleasing, and to improve their manners, care will be required that we do not rob them of their chief charm,-the simplicity

of childhood; for how greatly are to be preferred, even an uncouthness of behaviour, and aukward shyness, to any thing of premature forwardness, formality, or affectation?

"Affectation is but lighting up a candle to our defects, and though it has the laudable aim of pleasing, always misses it*" We must, also, avoid working upon vanity to secure good manners, lest we nurture that love of admiration which is apt, but too soon, to take an overbearing possession of the heart.

ORDER. The general order of a nursery will be greatly promoted by early rising, by regular hours for all the em

* Locke.

ployments of the day, and by an attention to this maxim,

"A place for every thing, and every thing in its place."

Method and true order are attainments of a higher stamp than is generally supposed; for they are not only useful in the lesser concerns of life, but necessary to success, in the most important objects: it is by these that the powers and activity of the mind are turned to good account. "Method," as Mrs. H. More says, "is the hinge of business, and there is no method without order and punctuality." "Method is important as it gains time; it is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much more than a bad one*."

* Cecil.

136

RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION AND RELI

GIOUS HABITS.“

RELIGIOUS education has been so ably and satisfactorily treated in several works already before the public*, that the Author would be unwilling, even were she competent, to offer a full or connected disquisition on the subject.—But as she could not entirely omit that which is the foundation of all good education, she has slightly touched upon some points, which from her own experience she conceives to be of particular import

ance.

* Mouro's Pious Institution of Youth-Babington's Practical View of Christian EducationDoddridge's Sermons on Education; and the Works of Mrs. Trimmer, and Mrs. H. More, on the same subject.

"The spirit of true religion is diffusive, and therefore, they that are actuated by it, as they wish the happiness of all, so they labour to set them in the right way that leads to it, and more especially will they do so, with respect to those whom the divine Providence has put under their immediate direction and conduct, whom the Father of spirits hath committed to their care as so many talents, which he expects they should improve for his service and to his glory. Parents should remember that their children are designed to be citizens of another world, and therefore that their principal study must be how to fit them for the employs of that blessed state. The instincts of nature prompt parents to do good to their children, but religion exalts those instincts, gives them more noble tendencies, higher aims, and a diviner bias*."

It is the deeply-rooted conviction, that in bringing up a child, we have to do

Y

* See Monro's Pious Institution of Youth.Vol. i. pages 18, 19. and 33.