HOUSEHOLD VIRTUES. "Say, what have you brought to our own fireside? -MRS. SIGOURNEY. E will begin our list of these virtues with family government. In a well-ordered household the parents must establish their will as the law, and do it early, for docility is impaired by delay. It is the truest love to save the little child all those conflicts of feeling which must continue as long as it remains doubtful who is to be its guide. It is a simple precept in philosophy that obedience should be the most entire and unconditional, where reason is the weakest. Its requisitions should be enforced in proportion to the want of intelligence in the subject. The parent is emphatically a light to those who sit in darkness. The transition from the dreamy existence of infancy, to the earliest activity of childhood, is a period when parental authority is eminently needful to repress evil, and preserve happi ness. But it must have been established before in order to be in readiness then. Without this rudder, the little voyager is liable to be thrown among the eddies of its own passions, and wrecked like the bark canoe. In saying this, however, we would not be considered as the advocate of austerity. Family government can be overdone as well as neglected. Children can be spoiled just as easily by a constant application of the rod of correction, as by omitting the use of it altogether. But as the substitution of your wisdom in the place of the wayward impulses of your child is the truest kindness, so it is a feature of that kindness to commence it when it may be done with the greatest ease. Gentleness, combined with firmness, will teach it easily to an infant, but wait too long, and it may not be so. Obedience to a mind in its formative state, is like the silken thread by which the plant is drawn toward its prop; but enforced too late, it is like the lasso with which the wild horse is caught and subdued, requiring dexterity to throw, and severity to manage. KINDNESS. Children should early be taught the law of kindness to all creatures about them. Draw back the little hand lifted to strike the unoffending dog or cat. Perhaps they will not understand that they are inflicting pain, but it will be best to cultivate in them an opposite habit. It was Benedict Arnold, the traitor, who, in his boyhood, loved to destroy insects, mutilate toads, steal the eggs of the mourning bird, . and torture quiet domestic animals, that eventually laid waste the shrinking domestic charities, and would have drained the life-blood of his endangered country, had he not been thwarted. "Do you love me well?" the musician Mozart asked in his infancy of all the servants of his father, as one after the other they passed him in their various employments. And if any among them, to tease him, answered "No," he covered his baby-face and wept. Kind words and affectionate epithets between children of the same family, are important. Though the love of brothers and sisters is planted deep in the heart, and seldom fails to reveal itself in every trying emergency, yet its developments and daily interchange ask the regulation of paternal care. Competitions should be soothed, differences composed, and forbearance required, on the broad principle of fraternal duty. A pleasant story is told of the love of the Emperor Titus, for his brother Domitian. It was the more praiseworthy because there was between them no congeniality of taste. Domitian often spoke unkindly to his brother, and after his elevation to the throne, even attempted to instigate the army to rebellion. But Titus made no change in his treatHe would not suffer others to mention him ment. with disrespect. He ever spoke of him as his beloved brother, his successor to the empire. Sometimes when they were alone, he earnestly entreated him with tears, to reciprocate that love which he had always borne him, and would continue to bear him to the end of life. The deportment of the older children of a family is of great importance to the younger members. Their spirit affects more or less the whole circle. Especially is the position of the eldest daughter one of responsibility. She drank the first draught of the mother's love. She usually enjoys most of her counsel and companionship. In her absence, she is the natural viceroy. Let the mother take double pains to form her on a correct model, to make her amiable, wise, and good. PARENTAL LOVE. Filial love should be cherished. It has especially a softening and ennobling effect on the masculine heart. It has been remarked that almost all illustrious men have been distinguished by love for their mother. It is mentioned by Miss Pardoe that a "beautiful feature in the character of the Turks is reverence for the mother. Their wives may advise or reprimand, unheeded, but their mother is an oracle, consulted, confided in, listened to with respect and deference, honored to the latest hour, and remembered with affection and regret, even beyond the grave." "Wives may die," say they, "and we can replace them, children perish, and others may be born to us, but who shall restore the mother when she passes away, and is seen no more?" A mother who was in the habit of asking her children before they retired at night, what they had done through the day to make others happy, found her. young twin daughters silent. The older ones spoke modestly of deeds and dispositions founded on the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you." Still those little bright faces were bowed down in serious silence. The question was repeated. "I can remember nothing good all this day, dear mother, only one of my schoolmates was happy, because she had gained the head of the class, and I smiled on her, and ran to kiss her, and she said I was good. This is all, dear mother.” The other spoke still more timidly. "A little girl who sat by me on the bench at school, had lost a baby brother. I saw that while she studied her lesson, she hid her face in her book and wept. I felt sorry, and laid my face on the same book, and wept with her. Then she looked up and was comforted, and put her arms around my neck. But I do not know why she said that I had done her good." The mother knew how to prize the first blossoms of sympathy. She said, "Come to my arms, beloved ones; to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep, is to obey our blessed Redeemer." HOUSEHOLD ORDER. "Women were made to give our eyes delight, -YOUNG. The importance of this essential household virtue can best be illustrated by a little home-picture. "Mother, will you please tell me if you have seen my thimble?" "Martha, I thought you had a place for your thimble." "So I have, dear mother, but it does not happen to be in the place." To have a place for things and not keep them in it, is like having wise laws, and paying no regard to |