hour, by saying every few minutes, "I shall soon send you to bed-Now, my dear, it is time to go-Now, I hope you will go"-but let him be told that, at such a time, he is to go to bed, and when that time arrives, no common excuse should prevent it.

We ought also to be guarded against attaching too much importance to trifles; from this mistake, many an useless combat arises in most nurseries. How often have I observed a nurse more disturbed, and a child more alarmed and fretted, at a torn or dirty frock, that at a breach of truth, or a want of generosity! Here the lesser good is preferred to the greater, and the primary object of education forgotten.*

By such measures as have been recommended, accompanied by a quick sympathy with the peculiar characters, and peculiar infirmities of children, much may be done towards forming among them a habit of good temper. But, such is the irritability both of mental and bodily constitution in childhood, that, with our best efforts, we must not expect unvarying success.

From some hidden cause, generally to be traced to their bodily state, many children, perhaps all occasionally, are prone to a certain fretfulness, or irritability, which will baffle every attempt to overcome it, and which, therefore, is rather to be borne with than opposed,— never to be humoured, but to be received with unmoved serenity and patience. In such cases, there appears to be no other method of pro. ceeding. This, indeed calls for great patience; but, without great patience, who can perform the duties required towards children?-Selected.

RETROSPECTION.

"Is there a heart that delights not to cling

To the objects it loved in its life's early spring?
The glen or the mountain, the lake or the stream,
Remembered like phantoms that flit through a dream."

THE power of retrospection over the mind is too deep and strong not to have its elements in the human constitution for great and wise purposes. We love to trace in it an evidence of the soul's immortality. The same exercises of mind by which we look forward to the future in faith and hope, lead us to look back on the past with fondness or regret. The mind of man is never satisfied with the present-never contented to stand still and drink in its immediate cup of possession-and the future being all in dim perspective, the object of faith and not of sight, human nature with a tenacious

*It is much to be regretted that dress is thus often made the subject of dispute and irritation. Personal cleanliness is indeed indispensable; and children, whether it teaze them or not, must be thoroughly washed. But their clothes should be so contrived as not to interfere with their freedom and enjoyment, or to require any great degree of attention. It is desirable to keep them as neat as the case admits of, but, to this, a nurse must take care that neither her own temper, nor their's is sacrificed.

fondness for stability turns to the past, as something that has been tried and proved:-something real, though no longer in possession. Again in the past we can count the links which make the chain of our existence oneconnecting the beginning with the end—and as some trifling unforeseen event or circumstance calls up a host of buried recollections, we may rejoice in the consciousness that nothing is lost. Memory has only been asleep; and often presents herself without our conscious agency, self-roused and refreshed by her slumbers.

Until we shall possess the talisman which "sheds repose over memory and takes from it regret," it is questionable whether the original gift is one most prolific in pain or pleasure to us. While living with regret on the vanished glories of the past, we are often rendered ungratefully insensible to the blessings of the present. The interest and beauty of passing events, are made tributary to the enhancement of those memories only, connected with the long-loved and the long-lost. When introduced to the happy homes of others, where peace apparently reigns in undisturbed serenity-where amid the bright scenery, musical laughter and artless mirth tell of the unbroken confidence of youth and childhood-even here, is our participation of their happiness overshadowed by comparisons of the present with the time when "our sky was all sunshine, our earth was all flowers."

The influence of association over the mind is well nigh omnipotent. It transports us through all seasons, supplies the power of creation, and endows inanimate objects with thought, feeling and vitality. Did never the sunbeam which fell just like the sunbeam of fifteen summer's ago, bring back on its rays all the emotions and interests of that former time? We knew a case of this kind possessing such strange power, that we claim indulgence for the passing tribute. It was an old window-sill, which the dew and frost, the rain and sun of more than fifty years had hastened to premature decay. I could never look from that pleasant window of that pleasant house, without pausing with respect and inquiry, to gaze upon that time-worn and weather-worn sill. It was gilded with every setting sun, and seemed to smile in its ray, as if consciously rich in the experience of age, and honorable in the registry of events, past and passing like itself into forgetfulness. Personal knowledge had to be sure much to do with this deep interest. We knew the history of that house. We knew the dwelling had been consecrated by great happiness-by deep sorrow too!-it was the scene of many changesbut the setting sun and the old window-sill were tried friends:

"While he ten thousand, thousand years,

Had seen the tide of human tears
That must still longer flow"-

for half a century of those years had his light been borne through that window (resting on that sill and repaying its services with his richest smiles) to the inmates of that dwelling-steadfast amid change and sorrow-rejoicing in their joy and cheering them in their sadness. Oft-times has the eye of weariness been turned thither-ward at the close of day for refreshment, when thinking of the morrow, and of man's sad inheritance of toil and care; and happy childhood has bounded from the same window in its lawless glee. The arm of the happy lover has rested on that time-honored sill, when eyes that saw in unison together watched, from that sacred retreat, the changing

tints of yonder sunset sky,—in the eloquent silence which tells that the heart is too joyful for words.

"But the young and the lovely, on whose sunny brow,
Shone the garland of myrtle-oh! where are they now?”

All this, with much that will not stay to be told, seemed to be graven as with the point of a diamond, in the grain of that aged wood; and the concluding lesson was given to point a pathway to Heaven on the 'line of light' which told of something more enduring than the perishable gifts of which we had made idols here.

When a sinner who had long contended with his Maker fell down in the depth of the forest at the foot of a little pine and surrendered his conflicttorn spirit to God-it was said by one acquainted with the circumstance, "that little pine will be remembered in Heaven?" Will not many such things be remembered in Heaven?-things which have, though trifling in themselves considered, changed the current of our lives, and given the pervading hue to our characters? Is it probable that the minutest interest of this life will ever be lost, in the world whose rewards and punishments are wholly founded on the deeds of this-where every action will be brought to light, with every secret thought.

For the Microcosm.

TO THE ABSENT.

I MISS thee at the morning tide,
The glorious hour of prime,

I miss thee more when day has died,
At blessed evening time.

As slide the aching hours away,
Still art thou unforgot,

Sleeping or waking, night and day,
When do I miss thee not?

I miss thee from thy cheerful door,
And every favorite room

Thy presence made so bright before,
Is loneliness and gloom,

Each spot where thou hast loved to be,
Sweet home, and house of prayer,

Seem yearning for thy company

I miss thee every where !

FORTECRUCIAN.

Parental Influence and Authority.

29

For the Microcosm.

PARENTAL INFLUENCE AND AUTHORITY.

To mould the character and shape the destinies of man is the work of the parent. The mind, pliant as the tender sapling, susceptible alike to impressions of good and evil is entrusted to the parent's care and directed by the parent's tuition.

Nor is it at the option of parents to say whether or not their children shall be influenced by their example and their instruction. The child can no more avoid the influence of the parent, than he can avoid the impressions which external objects make upon his senses. In the school of parental instruction there are no truants-no idlers, all here are ready learners, from the lisping infant up to the mind matured and ripened into manhood. Such being the constitution of things and the arrangement of circumstances in which the parent is placed, it is no less unwise than dangerous, for him to disregard those laws of influence, which are fixed unalterably by a being higher and wiser than man.

But there is a still more powerful influence than that which is exerted through example and instruction, which the parent is called upon to exercise in training up his children in the way they should go. We refer to the influence of authority. That authority which imposes upon the child the obligation to obey. An influence without which, all others will fail of securing the desired end. One which, when wisely combined and exerted with others, is certain to produce happy results upon the forming character of the youthful mind. If then it be a fact that the future character is formed under parental influence and parental authority, who can estimate the amount of good or evil which has its source here? To neglect or pervert that influence and that authority, is doing evil upon a tremendous scale. The parent does not indeed, by his own direct act, take the property or happiness or life of his fellow being; but he opens an arsenal, and deals out arms and ammunition to an infuriated mob, and thus in a few moments does an amount of mischief, which single handed he could not have performed during his whole life. We lament eloquently the evils of intemperance, of sabbath-breaking, office of every description. We are struck with horror that human nature is capable of arriving at such a pitch of depravity as is exhibited in the weekly list of thefts, robberies, murders, arsons; and we establish a vigilant police, a system of laws, and court of adjudication, and thus attempt to breast the tide of crime that is setting in upon us from every quarter. But do they accomplish the object? Will they be heard when their voice cries to the tumultuous waves, "peace, be still?" Will society, agitated and restless as the ocean lashed by the fury of the storm, calm down at their bidding?

We would not be thought to undervalue the institutions of our country, her schools and colleges, her laws and courts of justice. These are all good in there place. But what has all this array of machinery, as a system of influence, to do in promoting the happiness and good order of the community, compared with parental government and the domestic constitution? The one attempts to check the current of vice and and immorality when it is swollen by the confluence of a thousand tributary streams and is rolling on with

fearful strength to the consummation of evil. The other traces back this river of death to its thousand sources and there labors to dry up the fountains whence the stream proceeds. The one is lopping off a few of the outer branches of the deadly Upas, while the other is cutting up its roots and casting them into the fire. And can we doubt which is most successful in bringing the clashing elements of society into order and harmony-in taming and subduing the corrupt passions of the human breast-in elevating man to the dignity of an intelligent immortal being? What object can we imagine so unfortunate as a youth cast off from the restraints of parental authority—a stranger to the affection and sympathies of the domestic circle-training up under the unhallowed influence of vicious men with no object before him but present indulgence, and present gratification? Would it require a prophet's vision to predict with almost unerring certainty the future course of such an individual? But to get some idea of what society would be, were parental authority annihilated, we have but to imagine instead of one such person, thousands growing up to be the subjects of human government, lawless, unrestrained, with all the evil passions of the soul pushing up to giant strength. Indeed it is not too much to say, that society could not exist without this influence. The earth might roll round its ceaseless circles, but it would go on alone, untenanted by human beings.

it

If what has been said of the importance of parental government be true, may well raise the inquiry, whether the influence of that government is as strong and powerful as possible in moulding the character of the youthful mind. We are disposed to believe that there are some things in parents which tend powerfully to impair that influence, in its beneficial effects upon the youthful mind. We shall name but one, and that is indecision. We are no advocates of that harsh, tyrannical treatment of children, whose very look withers and cowers down every noble feeling of the soul. But while we avoid this extreme, let us not run into its opposite; which either has not sufficient energy of character to lay down those rules which the circumstances of the case demand; or if laws are enacted, connives at disobedience. Especially is decision of character demanded in the mother, whose influence is first in forming the tender mind. We do not hesitate to say that an enlightened decision of character, is of more value in a mother than all the learning and science of a Newton without it. It is this which gives lirection, and tone and energy to those expanding powers which are to constute the man. It is for the mother to say whether the child, growing up under her tuition, shall be that fickle thing that veers with every wind, or a firm pillar, on which the superstructure of society may rest with safety. Indecision is the bane of parental government. The mother sees that there are evils in the arrangement of her concerns, and the government of her family-and that these evils are every day growing with fearful rapidity-working their way into the very constitution of her beloved children, and there poisoning the fountain of social and domestic happiness; cherishing the germ of insubordination, which is thrusting down its roots deep into the human soul, and there preparing for a vigorous opposition to the authority of God and man. The evil is now small and might be eradicated. The mother heartily wishes that something were done. She feels that she would give any thing could she summon up resolution enough, steadily to pursue the course which reason marks out, and conscience decides to be duty. Perhaps she resolves, but it