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from day to day and from hour to hour, so are they well or ill educated.

If I have been successful in presenting the meaning of a term which is not only frequently used in this book, but almost every where else, it will follow, as a matter of course, that I do not attach too much importance to the education of daughters themselves, nor to their education as the teachers of others. For if to educate, is to form character, what young woman can be found, of any age or in any family, who is not a teacher?

Have young women often considered-daughters, especially-how much they influence younger brothers and sisters, if any such there are in the family where they dwell? Have they considered how much they sometimes influence the character and how much more they might do it not only of their school-mates and playmates, but also of their more aged friends and companions-their parents, grand-parents, and others? *

* On reading these paragraphs, in manuscript, to one of our more eminent teachers, he observed that if he had been useful in the world, he owed his usefulness to the exertions of a maiden lady who resided in his father's family, while his character was forming.

1 could tell them-were this the place for itmany a true story of reading daughters who have been the means of awakening, in their aged parents, or grand-parents, or other friends, a taste for reading, which they might otherwise have gone down to the grave without acquiring. I could tell them of many a father and mother, and grand-father and grand-mother, grown grey in vice-hardened even by intemperance as well as other vices-who have been reformed by the prattle, or the reproof, or the prayers of a good daughter. Is not such a daughter a teacher?

But I am most anxious to convince young women of their responsibilities in regard to the rising generation, especially their own brothers and companions. I am anxious, if I can, to convince all who read this volume, that God has, by his providence, committed to their charge, in no small degree, the bodies, and minds, and the souls of those with whom, in this world, they are associated. That according to their own conduct, good or ill, will be, in no small measure, the health, and knowledge, and excellence of their friends and companions. That according to their efforts-attended, either by the blessing of God, or the tokens of his

displeasure-will be the condition of millious, for time and for eternity.

But is it so? Are daughters, as daughters merely to say nothing, as yet, of maternal influence-are daughters thus influential? Is it true that the destiny of millions is thus committed to their keeping?

I have seen the conduct of a whole schoolI speak now of the common or district schoolgraduated by the conduct of a single virtuous, and amiable, and intelligent young woman, not twelve years old, who attended it. I have seen a whole Sabbath school not a little affected by the prompt attention, decorous behaviour and pious example of some elder member of an older class, to whom the younger members of classes, male and female, looked up, as to a sort of monitor, or I know not what to call it— for the impression thus made, is better seen and felt than described. The bad behaviour of a young woman, in these circumstances, is, indeed, equally influential-nay, more so, inasmuch as the current of human nature sets more readily downward than upward. Still, a good example is influential-greatly so would that it were generally known how much so!

Suppose now that by your good behaviour

and pious example in the Sabbath school, you are the means of turning the attention of one younger companion, male or female, to serious things, and of bringing down upon that young person the blessing of Almighty God. Suppose that individual should live to teach or to preach, or in some other form to bless the world, by bringing numbers to the knowledge, and love, and inculcation of the very truth which has saved his own soul-and these last, in their turn, should become apostles or missionaries to others, and so on. Is there any end, at least till the world comes to an end, of the good influence which a good Sabbath school pupil may thus exert ?

But this is something more than a supposed case. Is it not, in effect, just what is actually taking place around us in the world continually? Not, indeed, that a long train of good influences has been frequently set agoing in the Sabbath school-for Sabbath schools are but of recent origin. But people have always been led along to virtue or vice, to piety or impiety, to bless the world or to prove a curse to it, by one another. A word or a look from a relative, or friend, or acquaintance, in the school or somewhere else, has often given a turn to the whole

character. A word, it is said, may move a continent. Something less than a word—a look or a smile of approbation-may move more than a continent. It may move not merely a West,* but an Alexander, a Cæsar, a Napoleon, a Washington and a Howard-men who, in their turn, moved a world!

I have spoken of the influence which a young woman may have on millions through the medium of the Sabbath school. But if she... may influence in this way, the millions of those who are to come after her, how much more may she do in forming character for the great future, in the family! Her presence in the Sabbath school is only once a week-an hour or two a day, once in seven days; whereas, her influence in the family is going on perpetually.

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The clothes of Alexander the Great, are said to have been made, to a very great extent, his sisters; and those of Augustus Cæsar were made for many years, by his. And can we doubt that these young females were influential,

* A mother's kiss, in token of her approbation of some little pencil sketch, is believed by Benjamin West to have given the turn to his character-the character of a man who said, and justly, that he painted for eternity. "That mother's kiss," he observes, "made me a painter."