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than to it; that prefers extraneous to domestic duty; that takes her to the conversazione rather than to her chamber; to her confidant rather than to God.

"On the contrary, what more beautiful picture is there than that of the religious and retiring woman, who is struggling, perhaps, with domestic trial, and standing, perhaps, alone in sentiment and in duty? Her path is one of difficulty, but she neither makes her trials a theme of gossipping complaints, nor avails herself of the faults of others to excite pity for herself. And, if want of congeniality in those most near to her is her sore burden,-if even opposition is the appointed exercise of her faith,she neither seeks notoriety by the cry of persecution; nor looks to the applause of others as a compensation for her trials at home." pp. 50-52.

In a chapter on defects," we read:

"Religious gossip is quite as bad as any other. It can be by no means edifying, to be perpetually discussing the spiritual state of others, and giving our opinion on their progress. We can scarcely indulge in any such comments without being, in some degree, censorious; and it would always do us much more good quietly to examine our own hearts, than to interfere with the conduct or consciences of those around us. Yet this is a propensity in which, it must be allowed, we are all occasionally apt to indulge." pp. 137, 138.

We add a passage in a different style, as illustrative of the literary portion of the volume: the whole of which is written with the same practical good sense and proper feeling :

"We do indeed but little, if we do not induce our children to think, to compare, and to apply;-to draw religious and moral inferences ;-and, in short, to extract from nature, from history, and from every thing they see, read, or experience, lessons which will guide their future conduct, and promote their everlasting welfare; and this especially with regard to girls. For by such intellectual discipline, we shall best correct one great defect in female character; and shall make our daughters not only linguists, historians, naturalists, but thinkers; capable of applying their minds to any subject, and of turning each to good account." p. 179.

"It is indeed no wonder that young women should be so very clever now-a-days,there are so many helps to learning and steps to Parnassus. There are so many pioneers to pave the way, that it is a libel any longer to call it steep. If grammar be dry and abstruse, its necessity is superseded;-if the dictionary be irksome, there is the interlined translation; if the classic author be obscure and ponderous, there are the lucid paraphrase and the elegant abridgment. Be the nut ever so hard, the kernel is extracted. Our very babies may suck the sweets of Froissart, Robertson, and Hume; and follow with infantile curiosity the retreat of the Ten Thousand.

"Youth is now such a very busy time. There are so many languages that must be learnt; so many accomplishments that must be mastered; so many sciences with which we must be familiar. A little while ago French was a rare acquirement; but what girl now does not sigh with Filicaja, or weep with Klopstock? The versatility of female talent is, indeed, abundantly improved. Master succeeds to master, and class to class. The day of the scholar, like that of the instructor, is parcelled out into hours; and the sixth portion of each, which is cribbed by the former to run to a new pupil, is not unfrequently all that is allowed to the latter to prepare for a new teacher.

"It is well that mechanics can assist; that the inclination of the hand may be given by the cheiroplast, and the intricacies of time defined by a pendulum, and the problems of perspective resolved by a lens. Could the modern school-room be preserved like the saloons of Pompeii, it might pass in succeeding centuries for a refined inquisition. There would be found stocks for the fingers, and pulleys for the neck, and weights and engines of suspicious form, and questionable purpose; and, in spite of all our vaunts of philanthrophy, we might pass in future ages for the inventors of ingenious tortures.

"But for what end is all this apparatus? It is certainly very right that knowledge should be simplified; that the child of the nineteenth century should prophet by its illumination; and that little girls, instead of poring out their eyes at embroidered frames, should be treated as moral and intelligent beings. But where there is such over-feeding, is it possible that there can be digestion? Where there is such an anxiety to impart brilliancy, is it not for display rather than for use ?" pp. 180-182. Serious are all the duties of women; and, between acknowledged duties, it is not well advised to attempt to define the relative importance. Yet without disparaging others, without lessening the obligations of a wife or a mother, eminently responsible are those which devolve upon the helpmeet of a clergyman, or what one of the ladies whose works we are noticing, calls "female parochial duties." A specimen of these must conclude our illustrations:

"The distinguishing characteristics of the female are tenderness and compassion. These qualities, when combined with active and persevering diligence, and stimulated by love to her Divine Saviour, will render the services of the clergyman's wife highly useful to her husband, especially if his charge lie in a country parish. Let it be her first object, on entering so important a situation, to take a calm survey of the station in which providence has placed her, and to inquire what are those peculiar departments of duty which now more immediately devolve upon her. In some of these she might co-operate with her husband, and labour in conjunction with him. In others, she might take a subordinate part. In others she might form independent plans of operation, and exercise her mind in devising those schemes of usefulness for which her sex more peculiarly adapts her.

"Under the first class might be included the visitation of the sick, more particularly among the women, at times, and under circumstances, when female attendance is especially needed. The supply of the temporal wants of the sick person naturally devolves upon her; and while administering to their relief, opportunities from time to time, occur for entering upon the most important of all subjects, and for conferring spiritual as well as temporal benefit. While seeking to mitigate temporal suffering, let it be her one object and delight to point the sufferers to Him who is the only Refuge the only Friend and Comforter-the only Hope and Stay in the hour of trial. Their guilt and misery in the ignorance of a Saviour; their constant and entire need of Him; his free and gracious invitations and promises to them; his love in chastening them; the design and the blessed fruits of sanctified affliction: these are the suitable and interesting topics to bring before their minds, with much and earnest prayer for the Divine blessing.

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Cottage readings present another opening of usefulness of the same class. The admission to these little assemblies (which from their simplicity and retirement, form an appropriate work and labour of love for the minister's wife) should be confined solely to females.

"The Sunday-school, together with the weekly instruction of the children, where practicable, should likewise be divided between the clergyman and his partner, the latter superintending the female children, whilst the care of the boys devolves on her husband.

"Under the second class might be mentioned the private instruction of the young women of the parish. Their various employments, whether in field-labour, manufactories, or at their own homes, together with various local disadvantages, are frequent obstacles to any systematic plan of instruction. As far, however, as may be found practicable, it is of the highest importance to labour in interesting their minds, awakening their consciences, and instructing their hearts. When this primary object is accomplished, confidential intercourse respecting their spiritual difficulties will naturally succeed, and those difficulties will probably be mentioned with far less reserve to the minister's wife, than to the minister himself. It is obvious that this course of private and familiar communication will materially subserve their more serious and intelligent reception of the truths delivered from the pulpit.

"Under the last class will be embraced such independent plans of usefulness, as her zeal and ingenuity, her love to her God and Saviour, and her desire to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of her husband's parish might suggest." pp. 1-5.

The reader will have marked the scriptural train of feeling which pervades this extract, and the whole publication is in the same spirit. Arduous as she represents the duties of a clergyman's wife to be, they are rendered light and lovely by the constraining influence of the love of Christ, and the desire of bringing those around to the knowledge and enjoyment of his salvation. In no other spirit can either the private Christian or the Christian minister find delight in the service of God or in shewing the blessedness of that service to others.

LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

It was creditable to the good sense of the community, that the idea of a general illumination on the passing of the Reform Bills, was abandoned, and that in some instances local charities have been substituted in its place. We, however, mention the circumstance only to express a hope that this absurd custom will never be revived it leads to expense, waste, and riot in matters of party warfare it is

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unnecessarily galling to the losing side; more especially as the populace usually make an attack upon the property of those who will not illuminate, and much loss and mischief ensue. The Society of Friends, and other persons who object, upon principle, to this silly mode of rejoicing, are often sufferers, even when friendly to the popular side. This childish practice having been omitted on occasion

of the Reform Acts, there needs but a little effort upon the thoughtful part of the community, to abolish it for ever. We recommend a few members of the Society of Friends, or others who concur in their views, to see whether they could not induce the tradesmen to the Royal Family, to begin the abolition; which, if they all agreed to, no disrespect would be shewn to their illustrious customers, and the custom would cease.

The notion of the Indian loxia lighting up its nest with a glow worm, has usually been considered a popular fable; but the conductors of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge state, that an informant of their's, a gentleman long resident in India, tried various experiments on the subject, and always found when he took away the glow-worm out a nest, that it was replaced by the birds with another, which was not used for food, but was stuck on the side of the nest with clay for a lamp.

In the library of the late Dr. Williams, at Redcross-street, there is a curious manuscript, containing the whole Book of Psalms, and all the New Testament, except the Revelations, in fifteen volumes, folio. The whole is written in characters an inch long, with a white composition on a black paper, manufactured on purpose. This perfectly unique copy was written in 1745, at the cost of a Mr. Harris, a tradesman of London, whose sight having decayed with age, so as to prevent his reading the Scriptures though printed in the largest type, he incurred the expense of this transcription, that he might enjoy those sources of comfort which are "more to be desired than gold-yea, than much fine gold."

The monthly (Socinian) Repository, lately stated, on the authority of a foreign correspondent, that there is a project for the union of the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches in France, the basis of which is insinuated to be not those essential truths of the Gospel in which both Luther and Calvin agreed, but a sceptical spirit with regard to them. The Protestants of Paris have contradicted the report, and maintain that no such plan has ever been in agitation. If a union between the Calvinists and Lutherans could be accomplished on Scriptural grounds, we should hail it as a step towards healing the wounds of our common Christianity; but if both are to give way to Socinianism or Neology, the infidel amalgamation were infinitely worse than the honest schism.

The French minister of public instruction and religion compiled last year a statistical account of the primary schools in France. From this important document, we learn that till lately the system of national instruction was confined to a very small number of schools; but it is now

likely to become general. There are in France 38,135 communes; of these 13,987 were found three years ago entirely destitute of schools; in the remaining 24,148, there were 29,618 Catholic schools, 904 Protestant, and 62 Jewish. The schools were attended in winter by 1,372,206 pupils, and in summer by 681,005. The whole number of boys in the communes, from five to twelve years of age, is 2,401,178 Out of 282,985 young persons between the age of twenty and twentyone, 13,159 can read; 112,363 can read and write; 149,824 (more than half) can do neither; 7,639 uncertain. There are fifteen model primary schools for training teachers. Fuller tables, including girls' schools, are to be prepared triennially, and are to be presented to the Chambers.

National character may be read in the very titles of books. A pious and zealous pastor lately published in Paris "The Cholera-morbus,-an Ode-with some reflections as to the Propriety of Charity Balls for Cholera Hospitals." The good minister says, that it might seem strange to be tagging verses when the cholera was raging around; but his wish was to remind his suffering countrymen of the Gospel of salvation, and an ode seemed the most popular form for so doing. very properly censures not only "cholera balls," but charity balls of all kinds.

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The professorship of morality and sacred eloquence, at Montaban, which has been so long vacant has not yet been filled up. More than two years ago the matter was all but settled; but the minister who was likely to be appointed being considered "a Methodist" (for our French neighbours have adopted this appellation) two or three of the professors have continued, by various means, to keep the matter suspended to this hour. In the mean time, notwithstanding all the efforts. of Montauban and Geneva, evangelical truth is making rapid progress among the French Protestants, and especially among the younger pastors.

A Jew and two Jewesses were lately baptized in Paris upon a solemn confession of their faith in Christ. May these be the first fruits of an abundant harvest!

M. Goepp of the Lutheran church, who pronounced the nuptial benediction at the marriage of the King of Belgium with the eldest daughter of the King of the French, presented his Majesty after the marriage with the Bible which had been used upon the occasion, which King Leopold accepted with great respect and cordiality. M. Goepp, and two other Protestant ministers who accompanied him, had an interview with the king, at which they informed him of the present state of Protestantism, and the progress of Bible societies.

SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. (Abstract of Report.)

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