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IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE TO FEMALES.

BODILY and mental indolence, to which females are prone, both from nature and education, ought to be vigorously contended against-health of mind and body can only be insured by action; they are so intimately connected, that they mutually injure or assist each other. It is of the utmost importance to attend to the dress of girls. Entire freedom from bodily restraint is indispensable. Tight stays, tight shoes, back-boards, braces, and stocks, those inhuman inventions of a barbarous age, limit and distort the natural movements of the body, and sympathetically cramp the healthy operations of the mind. Such restraints are supposed to give elegance of carriage and perfection of form, while in fact they only produce deformity. The contracted waist, constrained movements, and helpless limbs, which result from tight lacing, are no more consistent with grace than the hectic bloom on the transparent skin of consumption with real beauty.

The occupations of women, being mostly sedentary, require to be counteracted by exercise. Females, from physical causes, frequently find walking painful, and shelter themselves under some excuse, to avoid this most healthful of all recreations. They should, therefore, be early taught that attention to their personal health is of equal importance with mental culture, and that in truth the mind can neither work wisely nor usefully unless it be supported by bodily health; and hence the taking regular exercise is among their positive duties. The constitutions of men often sink under mental exertion: it is, however, probable that, in such cases, the evil might have been prevented, and the intellectual strength have remained equally great, or greater, by attention to exercise. Among females it

is generally the case, that a sickly mind accompanies a sickly constitution: it is also true, that proper exercise and attendance to the preservation of health might prevent both evils.

In her own family a girl may easily be habituated to the practice of domestic duties, beginning with the simplest, and going on to the more difficult, (without trespassing on other parts of education,) which will be conducive

to health from the exercise it affords. She may also learn the attention and care which will, at all periods of her life, be due from herself to others, by being allowed to watch over the younger, and assisting in providing for and contributing to the comforts and pleasures of the elder members of the family. An appeal will thus be made to all the best feelings and affections; pleasure will arise from the consciousness of being useful, and thus the reward and stimulus to exertion will be happily united.—Quarterly Journal of Education.

REGARD DUE TO THE FEELINGS OF OTHERS.

THERE is a plant that in its cell
All trembling seems to stand,

And bends its stalk, and folds its leaves
From each approaching hand:

And thus there is a conscious nerve

Within the human breast,

That from the rash and careless hand
Shrinks and retires distrest.

The pressure rude, the touch severe,
Will raise within the mind
A nameless thrill, a secret tear,
A torture undefined.

Oh, you who are by nature form'd

Each thought refined to know!
Repress the word, the glance that wakes
That trembling nerve to woe.

And be it still your joy to raise
The trembler from the shade,
To bind the broken, and to heal
The wound you never made.

Whene'er you see the feeling mind,
Oh, let this care begin;

And though the cell be ne'er so low,

Respect the guest within.-Lydia Huntley.

PATIENCE AND FORTITUDE.

WE should learn to endure patiently the common afflictions of life. By exercising fortitude and submission we can greatly alleviate the evils we cannot avoid.

A restless, discontented spirit is a serious injury to a sick person; it always retards recovery. The effect of medicine is often counteracted by this disposition. A kind and judicious physician once advised a mother to punish her sick child severely. He told her that while her son manifested such a rebellious and fretful disposition, he would never recover. The nature of the disease was such, that a calm and quiet state of feeling was absolutely indispensable to a return of health. The mother found herself obliged to follow the physician's prescription, for it became evident that efficient measures must be taken to check the progress of disease.

It is always necessary to use self-control in sickness. The design of sickness is, not to call into exercise wicked and wrong feelings, but the opposite of these, patience, fortitude, and submission.

Some persons are always annoying their friends with a recital of their hardships and fatigues. True benevolence would rather wish to conceal that which could in no way be remedied by exposure. Persons of this description seldom have much energy of character. We should not think of trusting them with an undertaking of any importance, for we should know they did not possess sufficient firmness and resolution to make a long-continued effort. A slight obstacle would dishearten them, and a serious difficulty entirely overwhelm them. Such persons will never shine in the world, for eminence is not to be attained without effort, and effort always involves fatigue, either of body or mind.

"Who, most secure from future ills, would share
The joys of life, must be content to bear

Its many sorrows: calmly to sustain

The throes of anguish, and the pangs of pain;
To taste the sweets of life with life's alloy;

Resigned to suffer, grateful to enjoy."

Abbott's Reader.

TO MY GODSON,

AGED ONE YEAR.

THY birth-day-and the first, sweet boy! oh shall it not awake

A song from one who loves thee, for his friend, thy father's sake:

How many radiant years expand before the eye of thought,

The founts of life and love for thee with kindred beauty fraught.

The brightness and the bloom of days all redolent with spring

The hopes that soar to heaven for thee on many an angel's wing!

Ah, never may a shadow fall upon thy graceful brow, But after-time still find thee fair-still innocent as now! The inward living light of mind that ray by ray ap

pears

Thy sudden smile-thy upward glance-thy infant joys and fears-

Like music on thy mother's heart each tone and accent rise,

And tears of pride and gratitude spring trembling to her

eyes.

And seasons oft shall glow and fade, and leave their gifts with thee,

While thoughts on thoughts in power increase, like rivers towards the sea;

But never, Charles, canst thou know one half the care

thou art,

One half the love and tenderness that fill thy parents'

heart!

Next, Nature in her glorious garb shall call thee to her side

And lead thee through her flowery fields, green vales, and woodlands wide;

Bid bank, and brook, and hawthorn-bower, their treasures round thee fling,

Unfold the wonders of the woods, the miracles of spring!

Thou❜lt mourn, perchance, to watch those hues, so beautiful, decay

To see the withered leaf shrink down that brighten'd o'er thy way:

Oh, let thy youthful spirit, then, find higher paths to range,

And prize those beauties of the soul which seasons cannot change!

Then take me, Charles, wheresoe'er thy little foot hath trod,

And there, from Nature's shrine, sweet boy, we'll mount the shrine of God!

I have a vow within my heart, on His own altar made, To lead thee to his heavenly light, midst flowers that never fade!

And should I live, 'twill be my hope to bid thy soul arise To all that poetry of thought which lifts man to the skies;

To wake thy spiritual eye to things thou should'st adore! If not, my voice shall echo here when I shall be no

more.

May it instruct thee, when the dust shall darken o'er my grave

Say, thus my godfather had taught to love the gifts

he gave;

To ope sweet Nature's book and read the language of the flowers,

The language of eternity, which some time shall be ours.

And, oh! my boy, remember well thy spirit came from Him,

In purity, in innocence! and ne'er let error dim,

Nor all the world's seductive snares induce thee to resign The bliss of actions purified-of sentiments divine!

Then come what may of life's mischance, of earth's embittering thrall,

The everlasting arms, my boy, would never let thee fall! Rich in that best inheritance, a heart and spirit pure, Thy happiness is on a rock which seraphs keep secure!

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