the ice and sliding on the slippery foot-path, sometimes the ice will hardly bear you, it cracks, and you have no time or warning to escape from being buried in a watery grave. Sailing on the water in a boat, conducted by unskilful managers: playing at blindfold in a room where there is a fire: swinging, when the rope is not well secured on the beam or on the branch of a tree, nor sufficiently strong climb. ing a lofty tree: walking on the roof of a house: leaning too far out of the window, you may receive a fall, the end of which may be death. Last summer, a boy fell from a tree in walnutstreet, and broke his leg: a few months ago, a little boy fell from the roof of a house, and was killed on the spot. The immoderate use of spirituous liquors and heating cordials is death: jumping two far or from too great a height, has been the occasion of lameness and death: that of walking on stilts or crutches, with your feet some distance from the ground, is extremely dangerous; if one stick slips from under you, you must fall, and may not be able to save yourself: bathing is extremely healthy, only you should take care not to go in too far, for fear of going out of your depth, you should not stop in the water too long at once, and never bathe when you are warm: balancing upon a plank laid across a tree or piece of timber, sometimes proves dangerous, when the plank slips, the balance is lost, the child that is hoist ed up may fall and hurt himself: the pleasure

of the dancing-room; let me ask you why you learn to dance? It may be answered, that I may know how to enter a polite company, that I may know how to enter a room and leave it in a suitable manner, that I may be able to make an elegant courtesy, or a graceful bow: cannot these be learnt without spending so much time in learning how to place and move your feet, just as if you were learning to walk? Learning to dance puts me much in mind of learning an infant to walk: But where is the harm of dan. cing? The only harm that I can see in the thing itself is, the time is wasted which might be much better employed: it is not dancing, but it is the time it consumes, the company to which it leads, the health which it destroys; the mind is taken from things of greater importance; it injures the health, because dancing is generally carried to excess, sometimes till very late in the evening. I knew young lady, who, after dancing for some time, went out into the air and caught cold, which brought on a fever, and ended in death.

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3. The follies of the card table. There are different kinds of cards; there are playing cards, these are most generally used; there are conversation cards; there are geographical, and there are puzzling cards; and there are scripture cards: you may not be acquainted with all these different kinds of cards, but I have seen them all. Playing cards are those used in

card parties in general, and they are the cards which are the most useless, waste the most time and the most property. Well, but there is no

harm in them, if we don't play for money? Yes there is harm, it is a kind of silent gaming, which has often ended in poverty, misery, shame and death. There are conversation cards, there are different kinds of them, some I have seen are more fit for the fire, than the amusement of the young; some of them contain useful and entertaining questions, which are answered in such an interesting manner as to give pleasure to all who use them. There are geographical cards, these are very useful and improving to the young-for example, a geogra phical card contains a geographical question, and this is answered by a card which gives a short description of the country, extent, boundaries, rivers, population, capital, curiosities, &c. Puzzling cards-some of these are very amusing and entertaining indeed, as each card contains an emblem or representation, and is the name of some animal, flower, country, nation, or trade. There are scripture cards, these are suitable for those children who love their Bibles, who love their Saviour and their Maker; they contain some interesting questions or passage of scripture. All these kinds, except the first and some others of different descriptions, will improve your minds, extend your knowledge, and promote useful conversation, while, at the same time, you are amused and enter

But that per

tained in a delightful manner. sons who have souls to be saved, can spend so much time in throwing down and taking up pieces of painted paper, is indeed truly lamentable what conversation passes at the card table, how insignificant, how trifling how nonsensical, how sinful and wicked, when the same time might be better employed.

4. The amusement of the theatre.-Here, my young friends, I shall have reason to rejoice if I can but prevent one of you from attending at this destructive place. O, to save one soul from infamy and ruin, would give me more pleasure than to gain ten thousand worlds. It has been said, that the theatre is a useful school, in which persons may learn much if they please. Much of what? much of evil, much of vice: tell me what the lessons are that are taught in a theatre? Is not the holy, the tremendous name of Jehovah trifled with, blas phemed and profaned? tell me of one rake reformed in a theatre, and I will tell you of a thousand who have been made the most abandoned by it: tell me of one drunkard who has been made sober, and I will tell you of a thou sand who have been made drunkards: tell me of one spendthrift who has been taught at the theatre to be careful of his character, his time and money, been taught to be diligent and industrious, and I will tell you of many who have been taught to waste it, to be careless of their time, and their property: tell me if at the thea

tre the heart is made better, or the mind improved, and I will tell that many learn more vices in a theatre, that hearts have been more depraved than before, and the mind polluted by poison the most deadly.

It has been said, that many good sentiments may be heard at the theatre; but for one good one that you hear, there are hundreds, nay, thousands of sentiments that are not so. Plays are, in general, very much to be complained of, the sentiments contained in them are either immoral or impure that there are some few good sentiments, I do not deny, but the heart is so depraved that it is prone to that which is evil, and averse to that which is good.

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Some say, it is a harmless diversion, and innocent amusement. This I deny the scenes and amusements of the theatre are not so: they raise the mind above the common level; you are too much elated; when the play is over, the mind sinks; you are displeased with every kind of amusement, because it does not gratify so much; you are disappointed and disquieted, and seem to seek for something which you cannot obtain: thoughts of what you have seen and heard at the theatre occupy all your thoughts, you cannot think of any thing else; you are unfit for serious reflection, the mind is dejected, weakened, relaxed and injured.

Are there not amusements more rational, better suited to an immortal mind, and less expensive too? But, says one, you call the theatre a