comes? Where shall we look for those examples of friendship, that most adorn our nature? those abiding friendships, which trust even when betrayed, and survive all changes of fortune? Where shall we find the brightest illustrations of filial piety? Have you ever seen a daughter, herself, perhaps, timid and helpless, watching the decline of an aged parent, and holding out, with heroic fortitude, to anticipate his wishes, to administer to his wants, and to sustain his tottering steps to the very borders of the grave?

er.

But in no relation does woman exercise so deep an influence, both immediately and prospectively, as in that of mothTo her is committed the immortal treasure of the infant mind. Upon her devolves the care of the first stages of that course of discipline, which is to form, of a being perhaps the most frail and helpless in the world, the fearless ruler of animated creation, and the devout adorer of its great Creator. Her smiles call into exercise the first affections that spring up in our hearts. She cherishes and expands the earliest germs of our intellects. She breathes over us her deepest devotions. She lifts our little hands, and teaches our little tongues to lisp in prayer. She watches over us, like a guardian angel, and protects us through all our helpless years, when we know not of her cares and her anxieties on our account. She follows us into the world of men, and lives in us, and blesses us, when she lives not otherwise upon the earth.

What constitutes the centre of every home? Whither do our thoughts turn, when our feet are weary with wandering, and our hearts sick with disappointment? Where shall the truant and forgetful husband go for sympathy, unalloyed and without design, but to the bosom of her, who is ever ready and waiting to share in his adversity or his prosperity? And if there be a tribunal, where the sins and the follies of a froward child may hope for pardon and forgiveness, this side heaven, that tribunal is the heart of a fond and devoted mother

LESSON LII.

Letter on Watering-Places:-MRS. BARBAULD.

I AM a country gentleman, and enjoy an estate in Northamptonshire, which formerly enabled its possessors to assume some degree of consequence in the country; but which, for several generations, has been growing less, only because it has not grown bigger. I mean, that, though I have not yet been obliged to mortgage my land, or fell my timber, its relative value is every day diminishing by the prodigious influx of wealth, real and artificial, which, for some time past, has been pouring into this kingdom. Hitherto, however, I have found my income equal to my wants. It has enabled me to inhabit a good house in town, for four months of the year, and to reside amongst my tenants and neighbors, for the remaining eight, with credit and hospitality.

I am, indeed, myself so fond of the country, and so averse in my nature to every thing of hurry and bustle, that, if I onsulted only my own taste, I should never feel a wish to leave the shelter of my own oaks in the dreariest season of the year; but I looked upon our annual visit to London as a proper compliance with the gayer disposition of my wife, and the natural curiosity of the younger part of the family. Besides, to say the truth, it had its advantages in avoiding a round of dinners and card-parties, which we must otherwise have engaged in for the winter season, or have been branded with the appellation of unsociable.

Our journey gave me an opportunity of furnishing my study with some new books and prints, and my wife of gratifying her neighbors with some ornamental trifles, before their value was sunk by becoming common, or of producing at her table or in her furniture some new-invented refinement of fashionable elegance. Our hall was the first that was lighted by an Argand lamp; and I still remember how we were gratified by the astonishment of our guests, when my wife, with an audible voice, called to the footman for the tongs to help to the asparagus with. We found it pleasant, too, to be enbled to talk of capital artists and favorite actors; and I

made the better figure in my political debates from having heard the most popular speakers in the House.

In this manner, theremain, till of late my very dull kind of life,

Once, too, to recruit my wife's spirits after a tedious confinement, we passed a season at Bath. fore, things went on very well in the family have discovered that we lead a and that it is impossible to exist with comfort, or, indeed, to enjoy a tolerable share of health, without spending good part of every summer at a watering-place. I held out as long as I could. One may be allowed to resist the plans of dissipation, but the plea of health cannot decently be withstood.

It was soon discovered that my eldest daughter wanted bracing, and my wife had a bilious complaint, against which our family physician declared that sea-bathing would be particularly serviceable. Therefore, though it was my own private opinion, that my daughter's nerves might have been as well braced by morning rides upon the Northamptonshire hills, as by evening dances in the public rooms, and that my wife's bile would have been greatly lessened by compliance with her husband, I acquiesced; and preparations were made for our journey.

These, indeed, were but slight; for the chief gratification proposed in this scheme was, an entire freedom from care and form. We should find every thing requisite in our lodgings; it was of no consequence whether the rooms we should occupy for a few months in the summer, were elegant or not; the simplicity of a country life would be the more enjoyed by the little shifts we should be put to; and all necessaries would be provided in our lodgings. It was not, therefore, till after we had taken them, that we discovered how far ready-furnished lodgings were from affording every article in the catalogue of necessaries. We did not, mdecu, gire them a very scrupulous examination; for the place was so full, that, when we arrived, late at night, and tired with our journey, all the beds at the inn were taken up, and an easy-chair and a carpet were all the accommodations we could obtain for our repose.

The next morning, therefore, we eagerly engaged the first lodgings we found vacant, and have ever since been disputing about the terms, which, from the hurry, were not sufficiently ascertained; and it is not even yet settled whether the little

blue garret, which serves us as a powdering room, is ours of right or by favor. The want of all sorts of conveniences is a constant excuse for the want of all order and neatness, which is so visible in our apartment; and we are continually lamenting that we are obliged to buy things of which we have such plenty at home.

It is my misfortune that I can do nothing without all my little conveniences about me; and, in order to write a common letter, I must have my study-table to lean my elbows on in sedentary luxury: you will judge, therefore, how little I am able to employ my leisure, when I tell you, that the only room they have been able to allot for my use is so filled and crowded with my daughters' hat-boxes, band-boxes, and wig-boxes, that I can scarcely move about in it, and am at this moment writing upon a spare trunk for want of a table.

I am, therefore, driven to saunter about with the rest of the party; but, instead of the fine clumps of trees and waving fields of corn I have been accustomed to have before my eyes, I see nothing but a naked beach, almost without a tree, exposed by turns to the cutting eastern blast and the glare of a July sun, and covered with a sand equally painful to the eyes and to the feet. The ocean is, indeed, an object of unspeakable grandeur; but when it has been contemplated in a storm and in a calm,-when we have seen the sun rise out of its bosom, and the moon silver its extended surface,—its variety is exhausted, and the eye begins to require the softer and more interesting scenes of cultivated nature.

My family have, indeed, been persuaded several times to enjoy the sea still more, by engaging in a little sailing-party; but as, unfortunately, Northamptonshire has not afforded them any opportunity of becoming seasoned sailors, these parties of pleasure are always attended with the moot divaurui siCKness. This, likewise, I am told, is very good for the constitution: it may be So, for aught I know; but I confess I am apt to imagine that taking an emetic at home would be equally salutary, and I am sure it would be more decent.

LESSON LIII.

The same,-concluded.

1 HAVE endeavored to amuse myself with the company, but without much success. It consists of a very few great

people, who make a set by themselves, and think they are entitled, by the freedom of a watering-place, to indulge themselves in all manner of airs; and the rest is a motley group of sharpers, merchants' clerks, idle men, and nervous women. I have been accustomed to be nice in my choice of acquaintance; but the greater part of our connexions here are such as we should be ashamed to acknowledge any where else.

As to the settled inhabitants of the place, all who do not enrich themselves by us, view us with dislike, because we raise the price of provisions; and those who do, which, in one way or other, comprehends all the lower class,—have lost every trace of rural simplicity, and are versed in all arts of low cunning and chicane. The spirit of greediness and rapacity is no where so conspicuous as in lodging-houses.

At our seat in the country, our domestic concerns went on as by clock-work; a quarter of an hour in a week settled the bills, and few tradesmen wished, and none dared, to practise any imposition where all were known; and the consequence of their different behavior must have been their being marked, for life, for encouragement or for distrust. But here the continual fluctuation of company takes away all regard to character; the most respectable and ancient families have no influence any further than as they scatter their ready cash; and neither gratitude nor respect is felt where there is no bond of mutual attachment besides the necessities of the present day.

I should be happy if we had only to contend with this spirit during our present excursion; but the effect it has upon servants is most pernicious. Our family used to be remarkable for having its domestics grow gray in its service; but this expedition has already corrupted them: two we have this evening parted with, and the rest have learned so much of the tricks of their station, that we shall be obliged to discharge them as soon as we return home.