affected languor and coquetry. We shall not think them less amiable for being our best helpers.

'Having thus endeavoured to give you just ideas of the principal requisites in a wife-especially in a wife for one in your condition-I have done all that lies within the compass of an adviser. From the influence of passion, I cannot guard you; I can only deprecate its power. It may be more to the purpose to dissuade you from hasty engagements, because in making them, a person of any resolution is not to be regarded as merely passive. Though the head has lost its rule over the heart, it may retain its command of the hand. And surely if we are to pause before any action, it should be before one on which "all the colour of remaining life" depends. Your reason must be convinced, that to form a solid judgment of so many qualities as are requisite in the conjugal union, is no affair of days and weeks, of casual visits or public exhibitions. Study your object at home-see her tried in her proper department. Let the progress be, liking, approving, loving, and, lastly, declaring; and may you, after the experience of as many years as I have had, be as happily convinced, that a choice so formed is not likely to deceive!'*

A question difficult to be answered is-at what age should marriage be entered into? According to ordinary notions, no young man in the middle ranks in England can venture to marry before thirty years of age; for it is thought that the whole of the early part of life after leaving school should be occupied in attaining such an independent position as will enable him to marry with propriety. Notions of this kind are no doubt fruitful of many social evils, which we dare hardly touch upon; not the least of them being the large proportion of marriageable young women left single, and exposed wholly or partially to destitution. Unquestionably, every young man

*Aikin's Letters to his Son.

proposing to marry ought to foresee that he can maintain a wife and encounter the ordinary expenses of a domestic establishment. All, of course, depends on the style in which the youthful pair are to commence housekeeping. There, indeed, lies the true pinch which fixes young men as bachelors. Unable to enter on a certain style of living, which they believe to be indispensable, they postpone marriage long beyond the period it ought properly to be entered on. For this error, society ought justly to bear its due share of blame. The idea that a high and expensive style of living is a necessary ingredient in social respectability, is much to be deplored. No one ought to look down upon a young man because he begins a married life on a scale inferior to that of his father, who has already made his way in the world; nor should any young man postpone marriage solely on this account.

The real or presumed difficulty of forming a suitable domestic establishment, is often the cause of much distress to young women, who have entered into engagements which their suitor finds it inconvenient or impossible to fulfil. On this account, long engagements are much to be deprecated. Let no youth, in the ardour of his passion, tie up a confiding woman by an engagement, while there is no immediate prospect of his being able to make her his wife. In doing so, he commits a cruel injustice; for he leaves one to pine with blighted expectations who, left untrammelled, might have met with a match in all respects desirable.

Other forms of this indiscretion are equally open to censure. We allude to the silly practice of dangling after young ladies, without any definite purpose of ever making a proposal. With an indistinct fancy that he is in love, whereas, perhaps, he wishes only for a little amusement during his vacant hours, the frivolous genteel young man haunts the object of his imaginary affections wherever she goes, gets recognised by everybody as her accepted suitor, flirts about her-it may be several long

years-insinuates himself so far into her good graces by his looks and actions, that he knows he could get her at any time for the asking; then, behold, when he can secure another with a better fortune, or in some way more desirable in his eyes, he is off, and the long assiduously courted young lady is left to mourn over her misusage. How many hundreds of amiable young women have cause to rue that they ever gave encouragement to these contemptible danglers-nuisances whom it is a duty to expel from every domestic circle!

There may be disadvantages attending early marriages; but, all things considered, they are insignificant in comparison with the benefits arising from a proper regulation of the affections. 'It is not to be doubted,' says an American moralist, 'that a young, well-educated, industrious couple, who are sincerely and affectionately attached, on a sober examination and conviction of each other's worth and suitability to each other, may be happy with means far short of the fashionable standard. Presuming that such a couple are wise enough to take life for the real and substantial good that it can produce-and, as a whole, it would do them great injustice to suppose that they could not find that good in a small, simple, cheerful, tranquil mansion-it would be doing the friends of such a couple the like injustice to suppose that they could not visit them, and be satisfied to see them happy through such

means.'

From the same authority, we draw the following hints to young husbands:

1. Always regard your wife as your equal; treat her with kindness, respect, and attention; and never address her with the appearance of an air of authority, as if she were, as some misguided husbands appear to regard their wives, a mere housekeeper.

2. Never interfere in her domestic concerns, such as hiring servants, and the like.

'3. Always keep her properly supplied with money for furnishing your table in a style proportioned to your means, and for the purchase of dress, and whatever other articles she may require, suitable to her station in life.

'4. Cheerfully and promptly comply with all her reasonable requests and wishes.

'5. Never be so unjust as to lose your temper towards her, in consequence of indifferent cookery, or irregularity in the hours of meals, or any other mismanagement caused by her servants; knowing the difficulty of making many of them do their duty.

'6. If she have prudence and good sense, consult her in all great operations involving the risk of very serious injury in case of failure. Many a man has been rescued from ruin by the wise counsels of his wife; and many a foolish husband has most seriously injured himself and family by the rejection of the advice of his wife, stupidly fearing, if he followed it, he would be regarded as henpecked! A husband can surely never consult a counsellor more deeply interested in his welfare than his wife.

7. If distressed or embarrassed in your circumstances, communicate your situation to her with candour, that she may bear your difficulties in mind in her expenditures. Women sometimes, believing their husbands' circumstances better than they really are, disburse money which cannot be well afforded, and which, if they knew the real situation of their husbands' affairs, they would shrink from expending.

'8. Never on any account chide or rebuke your wife in company, should she make any mistake in history, geography, grammar, or indeed on any other subject. There are, I am persuaded, many wives of such keen feelings and high spirits -and such wives deserve to be treated with the utmost delicacy -that they would rather receive a severe and bitter scolding in private, than a rebuke in company, calculated to display

ignorance or folly, or to impair them in their own opinion, or in that of others." *

RELIGIOUS OBLIGATIONS.

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ELIGION signifies a system of faith and worship. The religious feeling arises from man's perception of his relation to the system of being of which he is a part. The presence and influence of religion is to be felt and manifested throughout the duration of human life, in all that is thought and done, with a view to a happier and more perfect state of existence after death. Just conceptions of the character and attributes of the Deity are of the utmost importance, especially to the young, whose minds require to be led aright in all that pertains to the great truths of religion. The religion professed in this country is Christianity-the most cheering, the most noble of all faiths. The books to which we point for instruction in the religion of Christ are those of the Old and New Testament. Make the Bible, as we have already said, your daily study, and let its doctrines and precepts be laid to heart. Unhappily, the presumption of youth sometimes leads to a spirit of cavilling with scriptural truths, which perhaps ends in cold unbelief. Seeking God's assistance through prayer, and approaching the subject in meekness and faith, may you be preserved against this worst of evils. Do not be misled by either the sneers or the sophistry of the enemies of Christianity.

* Moral Class-book. By William Sullivan. Boston.