it will be necessary for them to unlearn at a riper age.

Take care to make such impressions on their tender infancy, as you would wish should be permanent and lasting. Never let it be out of your memories, that "habits woven into the very principles of their nature are unspeakably better than mere rules and lessons, which they so easily forget."

NUMBER XXXV.

ON THE ADVANTAGES OF THE LONG-PROTRACTED WEAKNESS AND DEPENDENCE OF CHILDHOOD.

THERE are none of the inferior animals that come into the world so helpless, and continue helpless for so great a length of time, as the human progeny. The young of the lower part of the animal creation are endowed with strength and activity, and, in many instances, with a sagacity that astonishes the beholder, and sets his philosophy at defiance. Very shortly they quit the dam, and become their own providers. But the infant is puling in the mother's arms for many months, and dependent on parental care for as many years.

Is this remarkable circumstance in the economy of our nature meant to be a burden, or a blessing? A blessing doubtless. Because in the helpless condition of the infant, which continues so long dependent on others, is laid the groundwork of the social ties. We learn first to show kindness at home. It is there that the social principles of our nature, ordinarily, are first put in exercise, and drawn forth into practice.

The keystone of the fabric of society is laid in marriage, and the strong pillars of the superstructure are established in infancy. The helpless progeny--for a long while helpless-incessantly occupy the kind attentions of the parents, who are the more attached to their offspring from the very circumstance of their utter weakness and dependence. The mother in particular, how cheerfully she foregoes her accustomed amusements and pastimes, and how constantly she confines herself to the charge of her infantile brood! With what unspeakable tenderness does she nourish and cherish them, and watch over them day and night ! With what heartfelt joy does she perceive in them the dawning of reason and listen to their lisping prattle. And if too discreet to blaze abroad their little feats of activity, their pertinent questions, and their witty remarks so much beyond the ordinary condition of their age-yet all these she treasures up in her heart-and in that fond heart are continually blooming new prospects, new hopes, and new joys.

The affection of parents for their offspring is a species of affection that belongs to our universal nature. Whether in the civilized or in the savage state, in every clime, and among all the tribes of man, parents love their children. This primary human affection was exercised as soon as men began to multiply upon the earth. Ever since that period it has been a ruling passion, every where, and under all the different modifications of society; and though, strictly speaking, it is not of itself a moral virtue, yet to be without it, is to be a monster.

On the other hand, the long term of the infantile, dependent condition of children, is what chiefly generates filial affection, accompanied with respect, reverence, and obedient dispositions.

What if the human offspring, like the young partridge or quail, could shift for themselves almost as soon as born? What if they could presently become their own protectors, and their own providers? Small, if any, would be their regard for their parents: feeble, if any, would be the ties of filial love. But, by means of their long condition of dependence and tutelage, there are superinduced in their minds sentiments and habits of love, respect and submissiveness:-sentiments and habits, which seldom wear off in the succeeding periods of life, but are carried into society with unspeakable benefit.

On the same ground rests the whole fabric of education. The child, conscious of weakness and utmost dependence, finds none on earth to look to for protection, food and raiment, but the tender and ever attentive parents, who, of course, in his estimation are of pre-eminent wisdom and worth. Hence he receives their instructions into willing ears, hearkens to their advice, and treasures up their precepts in his memory. In their hands he is capable, in some important respects, of being moulded like soft

wax.

Thus every family is of itself a little government. Every family is also a little academy, in which education, good or ill, has its beginning. Clusters of families form a particular society; and clusters of societies form a commonwealth or nation, which is exalted by righteousness, or debased by vice, in proportion as the discipline of the general mass of the families, that compose it, is good or bad.

NUMBER XXXVI.

OF THE MORAL BENEFITS ACCRUING TO PARENTS BY MEANS OF THE GOOD INSTRUCTION THEY GIVE THEIR CHILDREN.

THE benefits resulting to children, from a due attention to their early instruction in the rudiments of learning and virtue, have frequently been the subject of able pens. Both in prose and in verse they have been described so clearly, and with so much fulness, that it would be difficult to add to what is written already. But it has been too little considered, of what unspeakable benefit good family instruction is to parents themselves.

He that is teaching another, is teaching himself: and more especially is it so in a moral point of view. Those attentions, which parents give to the moral and religious instruction of their offspring, have a powerful tendency toward guarding and strengthening their own moral and religious feelings and habits. Hardly can they in serious earnest dehort their children from vice, without experiencing an increase of resolution to guard against it in their own lives; or earnestly inculcate upon them