bad. The children of one family are amiable, peaceful, virtuous and happy; of another the very opposite, and are almost devils incarnate; in the former, the example was good-in the latter, bad. Says Williams, "I have endeavored to familiarize my children to those things that excite fear. In their infancy, we accustomed them to look at, and even touch spiders, frogs, &c. It was enough to set them the example, and they soon wished to have them and bring them up. I have seen Adelaide weep at the death of her favorite frog, and show as much grief as if she had lost the most beautiful Canary bird. When it has thundered and lightened, every body near them has cried out, What a charming sight! look at the clouds and the flashes of lightning!" and the children have been delighted to sit at the window to watch the progress of the storm." In several Cantons of Switzerland, there were no criminals, prisoners, and the reason is the great care taken to give children, even the poorest, a moral and religious education, both by precept and example. EFFECTS OF HUMANITY ON NATIONS. In the ratio that cruel laws have given place to more humane ones, in the same ratio have crimes decreas d During the entire reign of Catharine II., of Russia, for about twenty years, even in that semi-barbarous nation, not one murder was committed. She abolished the punishment of death, and substituted imprisonment. Leopold of Tuscany, also abolished the deathpunishment, and no part of Italy was so free from crime as that land. OUR ACTIONS. "Our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we cannotsay we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world. Our actions must clothe us with an immortality, loathsome or glorious; these are the only title deeds of which we cannot be disinherited; they will have their full weight in the balance of eternity, when everything else is as nothing."-Lacon. OUR THOUGHTS Says an eloquent preacher, "like the waters of the sea, when exhaled towards heaven, will lose all their bitterness and saltness, and sweeten into an amiable humanity, until they descend in gentle showers of love and kindness upon our fellow men." REVENGE. "There is a difference between a debt of revenge and every other debt. By paying our other debts, we are equal with all mankind; but in refusing to pay a debt of revenge, we are superior."-Lacon. FEAR AND HOPE. "Fear debilitates and lowers, but hope antmates and revives; therefore, rulers and magistrates should attempt to operate on the minds of their respective subjects, it possible, by reward rather than punishment. And this principle will be strengthened by another consideration; he that is punished or rewarded, while he falls or rises in the estimation of others, cannot fail to do so in his own."—Lacon. MISTAKEN IDEAS. "That time and labor are worse than useless hat have been occupied in laying up treasures of false knowledge, 'which will be necessary one day to unlearn, and in storing up mistaken ideas, which we must hereafter remember to forget. Timotheus, an ancient teacher of rhetoric. always demanded a double fee from those pupils who had been instructed by others; for in this case, he had not only to plant in, but also to root out."-Lacon. FORGIVENESS. "Father, forgive them," &c.—Jesus. "No trait in the human character is so amiable as this; none so ennobling in its nature, so purifying in its tendency, so glorious in its results. Revenge is devil-like; but forgiveness is God-like. Revenge and hate are the offspring of hell; forgiveness and love of heaven. Our blessed Saviour directs us to pray to God to be forgiven as we forgive; and informs us that if we forgive not men their trespasses against us, that our Heavenly Father will not forgive our sins against him. Hence, unless, we possess a forgiving spirit, we can never enter heaven. We cannot be happy so long as we meditate revenge to a fellow-being. There is delight in forgiving and being forgiven. How quick a reunion of hearts takes place, when pardon is asked, when "I forgive you, escapes the lips"— lips, too, once alienated and estranged. Alas! how many professed Christians indulge in a spirit of revenge, and dishonor Christianity, and 66 Alas! how they lose disgrace themselves. sight of Jesus, who was ever ready to forgive and forget the injuries heaped upon him-who returned not evil for evil, but good for evil, kindness for ingratitude." "Where is the heart that will not throb and heave, At the faint cry, forgive me, O forgive!" FORGIVE AND FORGET. Forgive and forget! why the world would be lonely, If the flowers but remembered the chilling winds only And prolong not again the brief cloud of an hour, Forgive and forget! there's no breast so unfeeling, LET NEVER CRUELTY DISHONOR BEAUTY. "Let never cruelty dishonor beauty"— Be no such war between thy face and mind, Heaven with each blessing sends an answering duty; It made thee fair, and meant thee to be kind |