6. IGNORANCE, COARSENESS, AND SELFISHNESS.--On the other hand, if
surrounded by ignorance, coarseness, and selfishness, they will
unconsciously assume the same character, and grow up to adult years
rude, uncultivated, and all the more dangerous to society if placed
amidst the manifold temptations of what is called civilized life.
"Give your child to be educated by a slave," said an ancient Greek
"and, instead of one slave, you will then have two."

7. MATERNAL LOVE.--Maternal love is the visible providence of our
race. Its influence is constant and universal. It begins with the
education of the human being at the outstart of life, and is prolonged
by virtue of the powerful influence which every good mother exercises
over her children through life. When launched into the world, each
to take part in its labors, anxieties, and trials, they still turn
to their mother for consolation, if not for counsel, in their time of
trouble and difficulty. The pure and good thoughts she has implanted
in their minds when children continue to grow up into good acts long
after she is dead; and when there is nothing but a memory of her left,
her children rise up and call her blessed.

8. WOMAN, ABOVE ALL OTHER EDUCATORS, educates humanly. Man is the
brain, but woman is the heart of humanity; he its judgment, she its
feeling; he its strength, she its grace, ornament and solace. Even
the understanding of the best woman seems to work mainly through
her affections. And thus, though man may direct the intellect, woman
cultivates the feelings, which mainly determine the character. While
he fills the memory, she occupies the heart. She makes us love what
he can make us only believe, and it is chiefly through her that we are
enabled to arrive at virtue.

9. THE POOREST DWELLING, presided over by a virtuous, thrifty,
cheerful, and cleanly woman may thus be the abode of comfort, virtue
and happiness; it may be the scene of every enobling relation
in family life; it may be endeared to man by many delightful
associations; furnishing a sanctuary for the heart, a refuge from the
storms of life, a sweet resting-place after labor, a consolation in
misfortune, a pride in prosperity and a joy at all times.

10. THE GOOD HOME IS THUS THE BEST OF SCHOOLS, not only in youth
but in age. There young and old best learn cheerfulness, patience,
self-control, and the spirit of service and of duty. The home is the
true school of courtesy, of which woman is always the best practical
instructor. "Without woman," says the Provencal proverb, "men were
but ill-licked cubs." Philanthropy radiates from the home as from a
center. "To love the little platoon we belong to in society," said
Burke, "is the germ of all public affections." The wisest and best
have not been ashamed to own it to be their greatest joy and happiness
to sit "behind the heads of children" in the inviolable circle of
home.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: DAY DREAMING.]


       *       *       *       *       *

TO YOUNG WOMEN.


1. TO BE A WOMAN, in the truest and highest sense of the word is to be
the best thing beneath the skies. To be a woman is something more than
to live eighteen or twenty years; something more than to grow to
the physical stature of women; something more than to wear flounces,
exhibit dry goods, sport jewelry, catch the gaze of lewd-eyed men;
something more than to be a belle, a wife, or a mother. Put all these
qualifications together and they do but little toward making a true
woman.

2. BEAUTY AND STYLE are not the surest passports to womanhood--some of
the noblest specimens of womanhood that the world has ever seen have
presented the plainest and most unprepossessing appearance. A woman's
worth is to be estimated by the real goodness of her heart, the
greatness of her soul, and the purity and sweetness of her character;
and a woman with a kindly disposition and well-balanced temper is both
lovely and attractive, be her face ever so plain, and her figure ever
so homely; she makes the best of wives and the truest of mothers.

3. BEAUTY IS A DANGEROUS GIFT.--It is even so. Like wealth, it has
ruined its thousands. Thousands of the most beautiful women are
destitute of common sense and common humanity. No gift from heaven
is so general and so widely abused by woman as the gift of beauty. In
about nine cases in ten it makes her silly, senseless, thoughtless,
giddy, vain, proud, frivolous, selfish, low and mean. I think I have
seen more girls spoiled by beauty than by any other one thing, "She
is beautiful, and she knows it," is as much as to say that she is
spoiled. A beautiful girl is very likely to believe she was made to be
looked at; and so she sets herself up for a show at every window, in
every door, on every corner of the street, in every company at which
opportunity offers for an exhibition of herself.

4. BEWARE OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN.--These facts have long since taught
sensible men to beware of beautiful women--to sound them carefully
before they give them their confidence. Beauty is shallow--only skin
deep; fleeting--only for a few years' reign; dangerous--tempting to
vanity and lightness of mind; deceitful--dazzling of ten to bewilder;
weak--reigning only to ruin; gross--leading often to sensual pleasure.
And yet we say it need not be so. Beauty is lovely and ought to be
innocently possessed. It has charms which ought to be used for good