mend or amuse them, longer than they are desired so to do. The pleasure of a social party must be entirely spoiled if these rules are not adhered to; but a more important consideration arises. from the effect which a contrary practice has upon the temper and disposition of the child. You lay the foundation of that overbearing character, which is no less opposite to female gentleness, than to manly greatness of soul; you introduce the germ of coxcomical impertinence and self-conceit; above all, you create the neces→ sity of extraneous amusement, which is in a moral sense a fault and a misfortune. A child that is not much accustomed to be talked to, or played with, soon finds out a method of making itself happy. It is amazing in an age which professes to pay so much attention to all kinds of early culture, that we should neglect the simple rule of suffering want to sharpen invention. This was the foundation of Rousseau's system, but he pushed it to excess, I quote an authority which is very dear to me, when I say that "more "children are spoiled by over attention "than by any other method." Many men express an apprehension of marrying an only daughter; being persuaded that the temper must be hurt and the character rendered fantastical, by having been the sole object of parental solicitude, which in this case. often becomes idolatry. Children, whether many or few, who have been accustomed to be watched over with this species of anticipating, preventing, everwakeful care, only spend their early days in acquiring expectations, which will unfit them for the part they have to act in their remaining years. Extreme caution respecting health, though deserving of censure, is far less injurious than that solicitude which enervates the mind. The tender mother who sends " her velvet-capp'd, fur-envelop'd" boy from the warm nursery, to encounter the cuffs and rebuffs, the heats and colds of a great school, has but exposed him to the danger of a hectic or a broken bone, the usual consequences of early fragility and inactivity; from which robustness and alacrity are the only preservatives. But if his mind be also enfeebled by the observance, if not the indulgence, of his perverse wayward humours; if importance be attached to all his motions; if provident affection anticipate all his wants, and all his words and actions seem worthy of admiration and record; how will this ill-fated child, when arrived at maturity, feel himself in a world where every one is either self engrossed or his competitor? The victim of irritable sensibility, whom I descri bed in my last letter, is generally thus formed by maternal supererogation to torment his future wife, and to create misery, needless contradiction, and slavish subservience for the unborn. But wholly confining children to their nurseries is no cure for self-importance, because in that domain they generally reign sovereigns; and from knowing that they occupy the attention, and command the services of all around them, that egotism is fostered which it is most desirable to subdue. We shall learn how to act by our children, from attending to the purposes to which education should be applied. Its first aim is to make us good christians, its second to prepare us for performing our social duties. Let us then, as soon as possible, introduce those habits which are most useful, and those sentiments which are most just. Let every child be in structed in the full meaning of that popular hymn of Dr. Watts's, which begins with this admirable reflection: Whene'er I take my walks abroad, For all his gifts to me? Not more than others I deserve, Yet God has given me more, &c. No I do not mean merely with respect to devotional or charitable impressions, but also to its own trivial consequence in the scale of animated nature. idea is more fatal to the future improvement and happiness of a child, than undue self-consideration. Whoever has a strong propensity to this error in infancy, will require more management than any other disposi tion, because a mother must not only correct him but herself; for she must carefully hide from him her own affection, and endeavour to watch |