The question is not one of popularity, which is to a great extent an accidental thing-some women being popular who fully deserve to be, and others because of qualities which they ought to blush to possess. The American poet, Whittier, expresses in beautiful verse what we have been trying to say in unadorned prose when he describes the true wife.

"Flowers spring to blossom where she walks

The careful ways of duty;

Our hard, stiff lines of life with her
Are flowing curves of beauty.

Our homes are cheerier for her sake,

Our door-yards brighter blooming,

And all about the social air
Is sweeter for her coming.

Unspoken homilies of peace

Her daily life is preaching;
The still refreshment of the dew
Is her unconscious teaching.

And never tenderer hand than hers
Unknits the brow of ailing:
Her garments to the sick man's ear
Have music in their trailing.

Her presence lends a warmth and health
To all who come before it.

If woman lost us Eden, such
As she alone restore it."

"Love, like the flower that courts the sun's kind ray,
Will flourish only in the smiles of day;
Distrust's cold air the generous plant annoys,
And one chill blight of dire contempt destroys.
Oh shun, my friends, avoid that dangerous coast,
Where peace expires, and fair affection's lost,
By wit, by grief, by anger urged, forbear

The speech contemptuous and the scornful air."-Percy.

"There is one article absolutely necessary-to be ever beloved, one must be ever agreeable."-Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

T is a mistake to suppose that the forms of courtesy can be safely dispensed with in the family circle. With the disappearance of the forms the reality will too often disappear. On

the other hand, as outward actions, and even the changes of countenance and expression of the features have a tendency to call forth corresponding emotions, atten

tion to the forms of civility will very often be successful in producing the reality. If you force yourself to smile and look cheerful, bright thoughts are sure to come into your mind, though you may have been, before the experiment, considerably out of humour. The next time you happen to be cross, and the members of your family seem natural enemies instead of natural friends, try this remedy. Smile and say something pretty, even though you may shrink from the effort as you would from a dentist's chair. You will have your reward, for almost immediately a bright streak of happiness will break through the clouds of your mind.

"Politeness," said Joubert, "is one development of virtue;" and in reply to those who would contend that it is necessary for society only, not for home, he remarked that we should wear our velvet indoors—that is, give those nearest to us the chief benefit of gentleness. How many put on their velvet to go out into the world, and consider that anything will do to wear at home! Politeness is their court dress which they change for a dressing-gown when they return home.

Even from the literal meaning of the word we might infer that politeness, like charity, should begin at home. A polite person means, in the first instance, one who displays the virtues of a good citizen; but as nations are gathered out of families, the home must be regarded as the most influential school of civilization. From that source issue the principles and maxims that govern society.

A really good manner is like our skin, put on from within, and never taken off while we are alive. Nature's gentlemen

and ladies are always gentlemen and ladies; but there are artificial gentlemen and ladies who put aside their good manners with their good clothes in the privacy of their homes. They have company manners for abroad; but home is to them not only Liberty Hall, but a hall of licence, where they allow their natures full play.

There are cowardly creatures, whose attitude in the presence of superiors has been well described as one of "respectful uneasiness." This sort of people stretch their manners to such an unnatural degree in society that they are pretty sure to go to the opposite extreme when relaxing at home. Feeling released from something that was hanging over them, they run wild, and become rude in consequence of their late restraint.

A certain Diogenic philosopher once made the following amiable confession: "Relations I detest; connections I hate; friends I dislike; acquaintances I tolerate; but the only people I really like are the people I don't know." It is to be hoped that few people adopt such a sliding scale or abhorrence, and yet it points to the real danger of familiarity breeding if not contempt, at least a certain amount of disregard for the feelings of those with whom we are very intimate.

Unless married people are so very sympathetic that they grow together "like to a double cherry, seeming parted," the never-ceasing round of intercourse between them may become so exigeant as to cause abrupt, unpolite behaviour. At breakfast, at luncheon, at dinner, more or less in the evening, at night, in the morning-all "marriage." There

is generally greater harmony when a husband's duties necessitate his remaining several hours of the day from home. "For this relief much thanks!" will be the not unnatural sentiment of a grateful wife. And to the husband, on his return, home will appear far sweeter than if he had idled about the house all day with nothing to do but torment his wife.

Richter says that distance injures love less than nearness. People are more polite when they do not see too much of each other. Let the husband then have a "den" or "growlery" to which he may retire when conscious that the animal should be marked "dangerous," and the wife a boudoir where she may be alone when inclined "to pout or be sulky"; which is the suggestive explanation given by my dictionary of the French term bouder, from which comes our word boudoir or sulking-room an apartment not less necessary surely than a smoking or billiard-room. Such expedients alleviate the "very much married" feeling to which reference has been made. When they meet in a common room the effect will be apparent, for husband and wife will be far more polite because more interesting to each other.

It does not "pay " to be indifferent to the feelings of any one, but least of all to those of a life-partner. When people are tied for life, it is their mutual interest not to grow weary of one another, and the best possible safeguards they can adopt are kindness and civility. How the whole day is rendered dismal and disagreeable when there has been a storm" in the breakfast "tea-cup" between husband and wife! As far as happiness goes, each must confess in the

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