termined not to attempt. She chooses her companions among those who are young, frivolous, and ignorant, because with those who are informed and sensible, she feels herself inferior and embarrassed. In her studies and pursuits, especially reading, she does the same. She takes the lightest, the most frivolous, and the worst, because she cannot understand more solid works: she wishes she could understand them, then she should be very fond of reading. Now, really I am at a loss how to class the inconsistency of this young lady. I am inclined to think she is not honest in her purpose: I believe, that in her heart, she would rather be idle and frivolous, than a sensible, rational, and cultivated woman.

To ascend to higher matters, which yet affect our conduct in the smallest, there is one great source of inconsistency in the world, of which the features are too broad to be mistaken; of which the compass is wide enough to include every age, and character, and capability of human kind-the inconsistency of those who call themselves Christians and are not: who are travelling where they do not seem to desire to arrive who are going as they say, to immortality, but neither know the road nor ask it, nor will listen if you tell them of it: nay, there is not an obstacle that may oppose their progress, but they put it in their path; there is not a temptation that may divert them from it, but they hasten to turn after it. Whatever reminds them of their pretended destination is mournful to them, whatever brings them nearer to it, is frightful. They allow the truth of every thing, and feel the importance of nothing. They admit the authority of Scripture, and deny every thing it contains. They call God their Father, and would be ashamed to bear the characters of his children: they acknowledge a Deity and an eter

nity, and live as if there were none. I need not designate them further. What consistency can be ex pected from such as these?

If, then, we would be consistent, we must first see that our object and our means of pursuing it, our path and our destination, are agreed. If they are not, let us examine where the evil is. Do we want information, do we want judgment, or do we want honesty? One or the other we want assuredly.

There is a character consistent in beauty, in holiness, in perfection. The features of it have been sketched, distinct though separate, in the records of eternal truth the whole have been conjoined, imbodied, realized, in the person of the incarnate Deity. Conformity to this standard is perfection: every departure from it, is an imperfection. Here perfect consistency would be perfect holiness. It is a standard no man has attained; yet is it the only one consistency which is desirable. When we seek consistency for ourselves, this ought to be what we mean; when we desire consistency in others, this ought to be the rule by which we judge them. But, I fear, for the most part, that is not our meaning. The only lawful code of conformity is abrogated ;` the only real standard of excellence, consistency with which is beautiful, and every inconsistency with which is a defect, is put out of sight; while we make to ourselves each one a standard of our own, moulded on our own prejudices, our own habits, our own peculiar taste and character; and by this we measure every thing, judge every thing, and too frequently condemn every body, for no better reason than because they are not like ourselves. In great things, and in small things, from the important features of moral rectitude, to the trifling ornaments of exterior propriety, Self is our standard, and all is VOL. I. Y

right or wrong, admired or condemned, as it agrees with, or departs from, this standard, this household deity, that each one has made for himself, and fashioned to his own taste, that he may worship it. CONSISTENCY, therefore, has come, in common language, to mean little else than conformity to the narrow ideas of the individual who uses it.

SCHOOL EDUCATION.

If we can succeed in showing the mother that she has left a duty unperformed towards her infant-a duty of paramount importance yea, one of far greater consequence than those, even, which she so assiduously performs for its bodily comfort; if we can convince her that any of the bad passions which agitate, the evil dispositions which deform, and the vicious inclinations which degrade the human character, are under her control; are attributable to her neglect; and may be prevented by her exertions; she will no longer be idle, she will no longer be negligent and indifferent as to the moral health of her off

spring.

As soon as a group of little creatures peep out from the nursery, every body asks the mother how she means to educate them? and she, with maternal anxiety, begins to inquire for the best method. For some it is determined that they shall have governesses, some are to be sent to school, some are to be taught by masters, and some are to get their education piecemeal, and by accident, in any way that may happen; which, I have been surprised to observe, sometimes proves, in the end, a very good one. As to which of these modes of education is the best, volumes large, and volumes many, have been written; and our most partial readers would not, I believe, petition for another, even of six pages, were there not a point in view in which the subject is not, to my knowledge, sufficiently considered. There is yet room for discussion on the subject, "How should a Christian mother educate her children?" for it cannot be that the same answer should be

given where that adjective is subjoined, and where it is omitted. It cannot be, that to ends so opposite, the same path should be the most direct. When a boy is to be brought up to the church, he is not sent to a military school; neither, when destined to the army, is he sent to a theological seminary. If, therefore, there be two masters, two services, two worlds, so distinct and separate as the Scriptures throughout describe them, there must be some difference in the mode of preparation for them. The boy educated for the army may, when he becomes a man, choose to go into the church; and the man educated for the church may take it into his head to enter the army; but this is not in the parents' contemplation; they have an object, and pursue the most likely means to attain it. The child of the Christian mother may turn out careless, thoughtless, unbelieving, and choose the service for which she was not designed; for genuine piety goes not by inheritance, nor of the bequest of man; but the Christian mother does not intend this, does not prepare for this bad preference. And if at the baptismal font she have really devoted her child to be a child of God and a servant of Christ, with ardent prayer and honest wish that the vow should be fulfilled, it is impossible her view of education, and the manner in which she calculates the advantages of the various modes of it, can be exactly the same, as if she considers that ceremony an established farce, and would be very sorry that her child should fulfil its promises. If, therefore, I write my sentiments upon the best mode of educating girls, it is for Christian mothers; to them only, my observations apply: for 1 am satisfied they cannot, in every point at least, be equally applicable to all.

Travelling last autumn, leisurely and for amuse