the punishment of a wicked man. Such a man is a complete selfist. I am weary of hearing such men talk about their family'-and their family'-they 'must provide for their family.' Their family has no place in their real regard; they push for themselves. But God says,-' No! you think your children shall be so and so; but they shall be rods for your own backs. They shall be your curse. They shall rise up against you.' The most common of all human complaints is,-Parents groaning under the vices of their children! This is all the effect of parental influence."

The female character, on which so much depends, and which, unquestionably, has never risen to its greatest power and perfection, save when formed under the domestic roof, the reader may have observed, has been kept in view throughout. Could the eminent Mothers, already mentioned, be traced to their respective homes in early life, there we should find the secret of that powerful sway which they maintained over their own children with so much advantage. The lustre of that example, to which the walls of their Husband's dwelling bore such witness, had before then, in most instances, if not in all, proved the joy of a Father's or a Mother's heart. Still it would be unpardonable, and a great defect, not to give a few distinct additional instances, proving that the same law holds good in their experience, and that they also are witnesses to the power of parental influence. A few of our most eminent female characters must therefore be noticed.

8

LADY RACHEL RUSSEL will ever be held in admiration, not merely for her fortitude under so many years of trial and sorrow, but her fine talents, applied with so much care in the education of her bereaved children. But then she was the daughter of the Earl of Southampton, a man who, to the best of his judgment, without deviation, pursued, in difficult and evil days, the public good, and, at the same time, had been most careful of her education. In this care her Mother united, the branch of a French Protestant family, distinguished for the best of principles. It was her Mother's brother who was deputy-general of the reformed churches in France, and who pled strongly, at a full audience before Louis XIV., though in vain, in favour of toleration.

LADY BACON.-The Mother of Lord Bacon has been referred to: the woman who, during the early periods of childhood and youth, when the temper is most susceptible, and the first habits are acquired, instilled into his infant mind the rudiments and principles of science, and awakened the spirit of liberal curiosity in that gigantic mind. But then she had been carefully educated under her Father's eye, along with her sister, who married Lord Burleigh. Indeed she was but one of four sisters equally distinguished for erudition. They were the four daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke; he had paid scrupulous attention to their training-up in youth, and was the man who was selected for preceptor to the English Josiah, King Edward VI., who ever held him in the highest esteem; while this daughter, Lady Bacon, had so profited under her Father's roof, that, from her superior

K

endowments and irreproachable manners, she was appointed governess to that interesting prince.

MRS LUCY HUTCHISON has been justly admired as having written one of our most interesting pieces of biography, the Life of her Husband, Colonel Hutchison. She was, no doubt, highly accomplished; but, in such times especially, what had she been if her Parents had neglected their duty? After celebrating the land of her birth, "the next blessing," she says, "I have to consider in my nativity, is my Parents, both of them pious and careful instructors of my youth, both by precept and example." They are afterwards represented as applying all their cares, and sparing no cost, to improve her mind; and to conclude, she says,-" It pleased God, that, through the good instructions of my Mother, and the sermons she carried me to, I was convinced that the knowledge of God was the most excellent study, and accordingly applied myself to it, and to practise as I was taught."

MRS ELIZABETH ROWE imbibed from her Parents her religious principles; her Father having been at great pains in the cultivation of her mind, was ably assisted by her Mother, an eminent Christian, who had first become acquainted with her Father when he was unjustly confined in Ilchester jail for nonconformity. "My infant hands," she says, "were early lifted up to Thee, and I soon learned to know and acknowledge the God of my Fathers." For her relatives, whether of her own or her husband's family, she entertained the warmest affection; and she was

laid at last, according to request, in her Father's

grave.

MRS CECIL has been already referred to; but then she was the link in a chain of pious ancestors : and many preceding generations in her family having walked in the fear of God, the united influence of their example was daily before her mind.

MRS DWIGHT, and her manner of proceeding in the education of her children, have perhaps been admired by the reader; but no wonder that she was such a woman, being the daughter of such a Father Jonathan Edwards of America; a man who entertained the finest sentiments respecting Family order and government. The man who said on one occasion,-" We have had great disputes how the Church ought to be regulated; but the due regulation of your families is of no less, and, in some respects, of much greater importance. Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. Family education and order are some of the chief of the means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual: if these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful. Let me now, therefore, once more repeat the counsel which I have often urged on the heads of families, to great painfulness in teaching, warning, and directing their children; bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; beginning early where there is yet opportunity; and maintaining a constant diligence in la

bours of this kind. Remember, that as ye would not have all your instructions and counsels ineffectual, there must be government as well as instructions, which must be maintained with an even hand and steady resolution, as a guard to the religion and morals of the family, and the support of its good order.— Take heed that it be not with any of you as it was with Eli of old, who reproved his children, but restrained them not; and that by this means you do not bring the like curse on your families that he did on his.

"And let Children obey their Parents, and yield to their instructions, and submit to their orders, as they would inherit a blessing and not a curse; for we have reason to think, from many things in the word of God, that nothing has a greater tendency to bring a curse on persons in this world, and on all their temporal concerns, than an undutiful, unsubmissive, disorderly behaviour in Children towards their Parents."

MISS ELIZABETH SMITH has been regarded as a young woman of great attainments; but during her childhood and youth she was not neglected. Indeed she does not seem to have there enjoyed any uncommon or peculiar advantages, except in the conversation and instructions of her Mother, who appears, from some of her letters, to have possessed an elegant and cultivated understanding.

MISS BACON.Of this lady, the eldest daughter of John Bacon, Esq., R. A., her brother has said,"I have no hesitation in believing, that, had she been otherwise educated, she would have become a willing