In the Bible it is said, that we should unite the prudence of the serpent, with the timidity of the dove; lest the one should be attended with the poison of malice, or the other with levity; lest the one should deceive, or the other be deceived, these indeed ought to be inseparable companions, for they give lustre to each other.

"Prudence," says an able writer, "takes upon her the charms of simplicity to become more lovely, and simplicity the direction of prudence to be more secure; and in truth, if address without probity is but guile, simplicity without prudence is mere folly." Prudence is necessary in all stages of life; in whatever situation we may be placed, prudence cannot be dispensed with; the Bible teaches us that God promised Solomon to grant his prayer, Solomon prayed for wisdom, which is real prudence, as this virtue is accompanied by all others. Nearly all the faculties I have sketched, are auxiliaries to prudence; memory, attention, reason, and reflection are resumed in this virtue.

Prudence is, in the opinion of a pious author, the guard of the understanding; a guard ever vigilant, able not only to see but to judge, to appreciate good and evil; it warns us against illusions, and preserves us from danger.

Prudence may be considered as a virtue crowning our most noble faculties; reason and understanding are of little avail without prudence.

Prudence is considered to rank first among the virtues, "it is," says Charron, "the great art of life; prudence leads us to consult and deliberate well, judge and decide well, guide and execute well.

Prudence requires the exercise of attention. I have already said much on the subject, for I am convinced that attention is indispensable in all stages, both of moral and intellectual education to command the youthful attention, is an art but little understood; the child must be interested and pleased; the senses struck, the governess must observe her pupils, and judge what is best suited to their capacity, for each child

requires different treatment; and the governess must take due care to ascertain the best method, of advancing her pupils' interest; in order to do so effectually, she must fix their attention on subjects that will instruct and amuse them. An intelligent governess, by the medium of conversation, will exercise the youthful understanding, and make all that passes instructive, but an inefficient governess, though placed with the most intelligent children, will never be able to draw forth their mental powers, nor induce a love of information so essential to a good education.

No task appears to me so difficult as education under the direction of incompetent persons, unacquainted with the art of teaching; books are excellent auxiliaries in the hands of able teachers, but the ignorant cannot make proper use of them; a clever governess seeks to know herself, and this knowledge enables her to gain an ascendancy over the minds of her pupils. Had Valderspin been left to his own resources; if like so many governesses he had undertaken to teach without knowing the state and nature of the infant mind, he must have failed. But Valderspin was prepared for the task by deep study, which made him take advantage of an incident that would have been lost to many.

In order to command a child's attention, we must have mastery over the will, this constitutes the great art of a clever governess. It is true the child should have a will of its own but it should also early learn to direct this will towards what is right and just; if gradually taught to do so, if made to love and admire the beautiful and good, if correct ideas only have been inculcated, there can be no difficulty in giving a good impulsion to the will.

A child brought up according to the principles I advocate, in whom religious and moral sentiments have been developed, who has been taught to love what is right, will never fall into an error without regretting the fault, and endeavouring to avoid the repetition of it, and both in youth and manhood will be incapable of anything that is degrading.

DUTIES TOWARDS THE SOUL.

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL FACULTIES-WILL-FIRMNESS

PERSEVERANCE-ACTIVITY.

Surmontez le mal par le bien.

Will is a faculty bestowed on man by his Creator, by which he is enabled to change or modify his determination according to his own desire, to act, or not act, to do well or ill, and it is the direction followed that shews the degree of morality of the individual.

The will directs all our actions, if the will be weak and undecided, we cannot resist evil, and we yield to our passions. It has been observed that reason alone was not sufficient to determine the will; reason must be actuated by feeling or passion, in order to assume an active character, so that the soul is most powerful when under the influence of feeling; in other words, our inclinations and passions give to our will, an energy and strength more powerful than reason and duty. Therefore, have I said, it was essentially important early to direct and ennoble youthful feelings.

If the education of children were rationally, and methodically conducted, instead of being checquered with innumerable errors; if good feelings were developed, the will would incline to good, but the object of education should ever be to ennoble all the tendencies of the will.

There is no will that is not either the result of reflection or passion, reflection is but little developed in infancy, children therefore are mostly under the influence of passion; consequently the passions must be elevated and purified.

Determination is also produced by truth, opinion or passion; inculcate in youth a love of truth, opinion, and

passion will have less weight; teach children to love all that is good and great, and their will must naturally lead them right. Neither in the child, nor the man will truth and reason prevail, unless the understanding has been early strengthened, and a love of truth and reason inculcated; for passion has so strong a hold on the human mind, that when not kept in subjection, the will has not power to seek the assistance of

reason.

It does not suffice merely to tell children that they must not listen to their desires, nor yield to their passions, but children must have early contracted a habit of right, which must serve as a shield against temptation: children must learn to know the good, and be encouraged to persevere in it, to take delight in the practise of their duties, and when the good and the beautiful are too abstract to be taught to young children by words, they must obtain a knowledge of them by the medium of example, and be led to imitation by gentleness: whenever children do wrong, they should be made to feel the effects of their error, their bad conduct must form a painful contrast and be a subject of sorrow to their parents and governesses.

I trust I shall not be mistaken, when I assert that a child must be allowed to have a will of its own, but that it must be taught to will what is correct. Will is the principle of action, it is the source of all that is right and elevated, of all that is low, of all that is strong, and all that is weak, of whatever is deep or superficial in man.

The child who has no will, is incapable of forming a determination, he is the sport of events, and of his own caprice : he is at the mercy of his fellow creatures; whatever may be his sentiments, if he has no will he may be led into evil; the habit of good may, no doubt, prove a protection, but would not have sufficient weight, nor enable the individual who has no will of his own to contend against the person who has determination of character, and a desire to mislead. What is to become of a child who does not love the good and has

not the power of resisting evil, and what must be the fate of a woman wanting decision of character?

Were children brought up to see things as they really are, if their ideas were correct, their inclinations virtuous, they would be more under the influence of reason. Of all our faculties, reason places us the nearest in communication with our Maker. It is reason which teaches us to know God, to love and revere him, it is also reason which teaches us to know ourselves. Reason is the light of the mind, it shews us our duty, and makes us understand the necessity and advantage of doing what we know to be right, but while reason points out what is good, our propensities or vicious inclinations lead us in the wrong path. If our inclinations be virtuous, the will enlightened by reason, adheres to them, and our duties are performed; if the propensities be evil, and we have not strength of will to resist them, we fall into error.

It is said that reason misleads, it is a great mistake, for reason cannot mislead; it is the will that misleads, being under the influence of evil passions. It is also said that we should not reason with children, yet what is reasoning? Is it not to think and speak clearly, and should it not be the duty of all parents and governesses to direct their children's minds towards the true and the just? Is it expected that a child will, from induction, know the existence of God? Is not this truth revealed from the earliest age? It is well to impress the infant mind with what is true and just, to guard it against error. If a governess has a well regulated mind, if her ideas be just and her sentiments elevated and noble, she will necessarily influence her pupils; as they advance in age their opinions will be confirmed by experience and reason, and they will have the same tastes, and the same passions as their early guide. I cannot therefore admit that it is unwise to reason with children; but on the contrary, I think it judicious always to reason with them, for in all our actions, we should take care to shew that we are influenced by reason. Compare children brought up by different governesses, the