is more judicious, in the first instance, to require passive than active obedience; I do not mean to say that children are averse to activity, as nothing is more natural to children; but in active obedience there is submission to a command, and then the activity necessary to follow the command. In these cases the child must obtain a double victory; indeed the activity of youth may, with due care and judicious management, be made a powerful incentive to virtue, as by its medium a child may be led to the performance of the most noble and most moral actions.

Activity is the life of a child; it sees those around it occupied, and it must also be employed; but grown up persons have an object in view whereas children appear to move and act for the pleasure of moving and acting, without knowing why or wherefore; but this activity is necessary to health and growth, and an intelligent governess will direct it to the advantage of the child. "Life," says Pestalozzi, "is all action; bring children forward, let them act, and thus teach them to live."

In order to keep a child in the right path and make it improve, give a good direction to its activity, an object to its will. The youthful will is under the command of a governess who has gained a right influence over her pupils; it is her province to turn it to their advantage; but this youthful will must be directed and controlled, not subdued. The activity and will seldom remain passive; it is therefore necessary to give them a good direction. All governesses, who have had experience, and take an interest in their pupils' welfare, feel the propriety and necessity of employing the activity natural to children, and not allowing them the opportunity of doing wrong, by instilling into their hearts a love of the good and beautiful, and destroying the inclination to do evil. In fact, activity being innate and very powerful in children, their education must be the means of employing this activity by the affections, feelings, principles, and actions resulting from the purest moral, which, as I have before said, is the moral of Christianity; there will then be neither time, opportunity,

nor taste for what is reprehensible. I agree with Montaigne, who observed that children should know how to do everything, but only like to do what is right. In fact, morality must be founded on sentiments and principles, not only on habits; the latter may prevent what is wrong, but the former improve and strengthen the judgment. I again urge that governesses should endeavour to instil into their pupils' minds exact notions of right and wrong, in order that they may listen to the voice of conscience, and that it may be to them as a guide.

The question of obedience naturally leads to that of of rewards and punishments; on this subject, I am of the same opinion as Kant, and I say with him, that there is something so holy and so sublime in morals, that they must not be brought to the common level of continual discipline. The great object of moral education, says the German philosopher, must tend to form the character. To be endowed with a strong mind is to be always ready to act on principle: the child begins by obeying commands; principles are also commands which man imposes on himself, and to which he willingly submits.

The restraint which accompanies obedience is therefore indispensable to moral improvement. The problem to be solved is to make children obedient, and, at the same time, to leave them in full possession of their liberty; and, in order to give a religious character to all the acts of life, let children feel that, in submitting to reason, they are submitting to God.

The time is now gone by in which the philosophy of Locke was hailed and admired; henceforward, the qualities inherent in the mind must be cultivated, developed, and improved. Know thyself, said the ancients, and know thy soul, which soul is represented in the revelation and in the holy Scriptures as a breath of the Divine Spirit. It must be admitted that the soul has faculties inherent to its nature, which faculties are exercised, not formed by external relations. The ideas of truth, of justice, of goodness, of God, need not be forced on the memory, as they exist in the human soul; and

as arts and sciences are rapidly advancing, as the wisdom of the ancient philosophers is, comparatively speaking, common to most individuals of the present age, why should not the great work of education follow the admirable progression of human improvement.

Let children be brought up by the medium of feelings and affections, let these feelings and affections be converted into principles, reveal to children the existence of their conscience, teach them to listen to this inward monitor, they will then learn to reflect in early life, which will always be an incalculable advantage. Let children also, according to the words of the Prophet, "Trust to their own soul;" let them be made acquainted with the true, the just, the beautiful, and let each child retain its individuality, which constitutes its own peculiar genius. Moreover, to render obedience essentially moral, it must be an act of free will, of submission to a rational and just command, in order not to destroy self-esteem, confidence, and prudence, thus causing the infant will to become in able hands a powerful means of turning youthful activity to good purposes. When the work has been thus happily commenced, it will be easily continued, and the child brought up in the principles I so earnestly advocate, will be an enlightened christian, and an exemplary woman.

MORAL DUTIES.

FRATERNAL LOVE.

nature.

Pour bien pratiquer envers tous les hommes la science divine de la charité, il fant en faire l'apprentissage en famille.--SILVIO PELLICO.

Brothers and sisters belong to each other, said a celebrated writer, since they derived life from the same source, and that their early affections, and early duties are of the same After filial piety, brotherly love is the virtue to be most sedulously cultivated; and as all virtues are con-nected and dependent on each other, the practice of one virtue serves to strengthen other virtues. Brotherly affection is mostly the result of filial love, and the love of our fellow creatures is but the extension of fraternal affection, so that, it may be justly said that brotherly love is particularly calculated to induce social and benevolent feelings.

Valerius Maximus in treating of fraternal love, says, "how delightful is it to have been rocked in the same cradle, brought up under the same roof, to have called our parents by the endearing names of father and mother; these parents to have formed for us the same good wishes, and all equally to share in the glory of our ancestors."

Where fraternal love is wanting, youth loses a great portion of happiness; a brother, says a celebrated poet, is a friend given to us by nature, and the delight of friendship is never so great as when existing between brothers and sisters; in fact, is it not agreeable for children to be brought up together, to have friends of the same age, to be united by the same feelings and interests, to have the same joys, nay even the same sorrows; when, perchance, there is an only child in a family, how delighted is that child to have playfellows,

who can share its amusements; and are not brothers playfellows given to us by nature?

I know not a more pleasing picture than that of a family, where the children are attached to the parents, and to each other, and are as the branches of a tree; if being born in the same country, and speaking the same language, create among men ties that link them to each other, and to their country, how much more powerful are the ties of blood? To be born of the same parents, made of the same flesh, nourished by the same mother, loved and protected by the same father, to grow up together, to be seated at the same table, instructed in the same doctrines, taught to adore the same God, are undoubtedly circumstances that must naturally cement brotherly affection.

Christ who came into the world to save us, said that all men were brethren, and that we should love one another. It might seem that this universal charity would eventually do away with relationship and private friendship, but it is by no means the case, for private affections have been consecrated by religion itself. *

"Three things are approved of both by God and man, "according to the Holy Scriptures, that is to say: union be"tween brothers and sisters, love of our neighbour, and "concord between husband and wife.

"How pleasant is brotherly love, says the divine writings, "this union is as a sweet perfume, it is as the dew that falls on "the valley of Sion.

"There are six things which are displeasing to the Lord. "and he abhorreth the seventh; the seventh is he that seweth "dissension between brethren."

How numerous are the passages in the holy writings tending to show that brotherly love is in the designs of God and in the views of nature. Even as a mere matter of interest, the advantages of fraternal affection are manifest, for in Ecclesiastes it is said, the brother who loves his brother is as a strong tower.