The lad looked seriously into the merchant's face, and replied, “I promised my mother I would read it every day, and I shall do it," and burst into tears.

The merchant immediately engaged his services, and in due time he became a partner in the firm-one of the most respectable in the city.

HONESTY.

Boys placed in circumstances of temptation cannot be too deeply impressed with the conviction that "honesty is the best policy;" that is to say, that, in the long run, they will make more by being honest than by taking that which is not their own. The following is a case in point:-A nobleman travelling in Scotland, a number of years ago, was asked for his alms in the High-street of Edinburgh, by a little ragged boy. He said he had no change, upon which the boy offered to procure it. His lordship, in order to get rid of his importunity, gave him a piece of silver, which the boy conceiving was to be changed, ran off for the purpose. On his return, not finding his benefactor, whom he expected to wait, he watched for several days in the place where he had received the money. At length, the nobleman happening again to pass that way, the boy accosted him, and put the change he had procured into his hand, counting it with great exactness. His lordship was so pleased with the boy's honesty, that he placed him at school, with the assurance of providing for him.

POLITENESS AT HOME. ALWAYS speak with the utmost politeness and deference to your parents and friends. Some children are polite and civil everywhere else, except at home, but there they are coarse and rude enough. Shameful!

Nothing sits so gracefully upon children, and nothing makes them so lovely, as habitual respect and dutiful deportment towards their parents and superiors. It makes the plainest face beautiful, and gives to every common action a nameless but peculiar charm.

PEEVISHNESS.

PEEVISHNESS frequently gives rise to discord. Peevishness we may regard as a family canker. It is not like an acute disease in plants, or like the devastations of the locust and caterpillar, that cause vegetation suddenly to disappear. It is a corroding malady-it eats in, and it eats on, till the vital sap is wasted. Whether the evil be communicative by provocation and example, or whether it be natural and hereditary, we cannot tell; but, strange to say, there are many houses in which there is not an individual free from this unfortunate disease. Enter when you will, there is a dark frown on every one's countenance. There is not "a bright smile playing upon the cheek of beauty." That cheek has been prematurely furrowed with discontent, and the "complaint" is universally popular-not, it is true, the immortal poem that bears that name, but the everlasting detail of private drawbacks, wrongs, and injuries. At every period, even in the sunshine of summer, it appears as if the fogs of Holland had filled and overloaded the family atmosphere. Stiffness, sternness, disobligingness, constantly prevail.

VOL. V.

"One

cannot do this or do that. Let another do it. He has more time than I have."

Frankness, candour, and kindness, have never nestled under the roof. Every ecion seems to be a sensitive plant, or smitten with the Egyptian plague, so that he shrinks if you touch him. Quaint wit, also, exhibits here her

antics.

Ingenuity is racked to find out a sharp retort, that may cut to the bone; and the witling delights, with a fiendish joy, in administering the silly infliction. Disorder retains her court, and celebrates her perpetual holiday here. Look at the interior of the building; everything is tossed up and down, and every one thinks herself haughty enough not to replace it. Look into the farm or counting-house; business is either at a stand-still or retrograding: no one will trouble himself to oil the wheels of industry, that, in the end, may contribute to another's advantage besides his own.

It has been a source of astonishment to me how such families continue to hang together. There are frequent turns out, it is true; some live away for a while; and some, in the paroxysm of rage, leave the place, and try their fortunes in a foreign country. Still

K

the heat generally subsides without much apparent conciliation; and matters proceed at the old jog, till another rut upsets the ricketty wheel.

To think either of union or religion here would be absurd-as well look for it in a den of asps or jackalls. The house is the miniature of the abode of darkness. Its original, its prototype, is the region of despair, where fallen angels and condemned spirits constantly indulge in scenes of mutual recrimination.

Overcome

It has been often asked, Is this malady capable of cure? In answer, it is very hard to say, because the patients never seek for a physician. They are all so "wise in their own conceit," that a modest hint at the prevailing disease would be certain to provoke the rejoinder, that persons should always mind their own affairs." Often, however, there is some sense in one of the family. Let this become a Vesta light to kindle the fire of unity. Constitutional peculiarity is hard to be it is like constitutional weakness, that requires time and tonics to strengthen it; but by a quiet, silent, forbearing process, much might be done. Let all causes of provocation be removed. Let taunting language cease. Gather a lesson from the smiling flowers around you, and smile too. Let your smile be that of undisguised good-nature, and not the cutting smile of malice. Take upon you the task of family reformer. Do your work mildly, gently, insensibly. Let your applications and rebukes be general, and in small doses at a time. Remove every reasonable cause of reproach or faultfinding, and never recriminate. Patience will do more to effect a cure than direct applications. Be sure to

persevere without growing discouraged; and if you succeed in rooting out the malady, remember you deserve more genuine applause than Alexander, when he had conquered a world.

Pinching poverty often originates discord. Poverty is a sore trial, which it requires a large stock of faith to bear with equanimity. Unfortunately, those who are covered with the pall of distress are generally ignorant; they have neglected means of grace, that are indispensable to enlighten and sustain the mind; and they have laid up no store of spiritual comfort against the evil day. Indeed, physical suffering is very hard to endure. And it is not their own wants, but the privations of those whom they hold dearer than life itself, that accumulate and deepen their affliction. Melancholy, in the first stage, ends in recrimination at the last. A loving couple have many struggles before they arrive at this conclusion. Love stifles reproaches. At length, by physical want, the feeling cools down; and the demon of indifference usurps its throne. From indifference there is only one light step to hatred. This, for a time, is a mere personal feeling, concealed equally from the family and the public. After a time, the bubbling cauldron boils over. The ear of lisping childhood is profaned by parental controversy, and learns to admit occasions of hatred to the other children. In due season, the mask wears largely away-the public are let behind the scene, at least any of them who are busy bodies, and who delight in gadding about from house to house. Now, it is no secret, that Alexander the carpenter, and his wife, once so loving, are at variance. Neighbours, some through sincerity, some through

curiosity, and some to kindle the coal, put their fingers into the pie. The application, like poison or caustic, aggravates the disorder; while no cha ritable soul has either wit or compassion to cut up the roots of the malady by removing their physical wants, and thus to cause sunshine, joy, and gladness, again to beam upon their once happy dwelling.

To guard against poverty, strive to avoid its cause. Do not fritter any little stock you have in foolish vanity or in wanton luxury. Remember, if there be a bright day now, there will be a rainy day hereafter. Let not af fection absorb your little competence. Above all, beware of gambling, drinking, prodigality. Be industrious, honest, and frugal. If, notwithstanding every effort, your resources fail you, and poverty stares you in the face, recollect there is a God above you, who sees you, and who moves the wheel of Providence. Consider His promises: "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles," Ps. xxxiv. 6. "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing," verse 10. "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth them, and delivereth them out of all their troubles," verse 17. Do not fly either in God's face or your companion's, because you undergo the ordinary trials of man. What know you but the furnace of poverty is sent for your purification? At any rate, try to better your condition by every legitimate means in your power. Voluntary poverty is a dogma, solely of an apostate church. God's own rod is sufficient. Strive to have it removed by honest industry, by pains-taking, by

frugality, and especially by prayer. And, meanwhile, live in love, and the Almighty will be certain to reward your fidelity.

PARENTAL AUTHORITY. To maintain union in the house, it is necessary that fathers should preserve their authority inviolate. No State prospers where the Sovereign ceases to act as president of the commonwealth. In primitive ages, when kings were governed by favourites, or allowed their authority to become vested in queen-mothers, queen-consorts, or even in princes of the bloodroyal, their subjects always felt the change. Tyranny became rampantthe seal of the empire was abused— the members usurped the dignity of the head-the haughtiness of menials and subordinates was intolerable-and the incubus under which the nation groaned was finally thrown off, by putting to death either the favourite or the too indulgent master.

Households are empires on a minor scale. The same rules govern both. the same constitution Divine Providence has given to both; and it is equally a law of nature and religion, that every man should bear rule in his own house. Sturdy, imperious sons, we are aware, are difficult to masterlike Eli's, they are too many for their facile parent. Besides, he cannot be always struggling with them. If advice will not prevail, authority is disregarded. Begin betimes. It is easier bending the sapling than the fullgrown tree. Much of that stubborn resistance of which you complain is of your own creating. You have given your sons, in every instance, their will, and so has this evil betided you.