great attention; and their moral and religious characters he endeavoured to form and improve, by example as well as precept.

JONATHAN EDWARDS of America, the only brother of ten sisters, the Child of Parents eminently pious, was greatly indebted to them in his earliest years; and what is singular, he could distinctly look back on his own progenitors, in a regular chain, to his great-great Grandfather, a minister in London, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The family of his Mother (a singular woman, who, surviving him, died at the age of 90), was equally distinguished for their Christianity and attention to family religion. When Jonathan Edwards, therefore, is admired as a prodigy in the religious or metaphysical world, and well he may, he cannot be regarded as we do a lily among thorns, or, to use another Scripture metaphor, "as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood." He appears before us as the offspring of an extended line of pious ancestors, and as especially indebted to his immediate Parents; as well as the spring-head of a posterity who yet survive to benefit and bless the world; for the Parent of the Mother of President Dwight must again be noticed.

DR DWIGHT, another character, but recently deceased, is a name with which the reader is doubtless familiar. His Mother "possessed uncommon powers of mind, and, for the extent and variety of her knowledge, has rarely been exceeded by any of her sex in this country (America.) Though married at an early age, and a Mother at eighteen, she found time, with

out neglecting the ordinary cares of her family, to devote herself, with the most assiduous attention, to the instruction of this Son, and her numerous family of children, as they successively claimed her regard. Perhaps few instances can be found, in which this great duty has been performed, with more scrupulous fidelity than in the case now under consideration. With a mind originally vigorous and discriminating, she had been accustomed, from infancy, to the conversation of men of literature, who resorted, in great numbers, to her Father's house, and thus was forcibly taught the importance of that learning, the effects of which she had so often had opportunity to witness. It was a maxim with her, the soundness of which her own observation through life fully confirmed, that children generally lose several years, in consequence of being considered too young to be taught. She pursued a different course with her Son: she began to instruct him almost as soon as he was able to speak; and such was his eagerness, as well as his capacity for improvement, that, before he was four years old, he was able to read the Bible with ease and correctness."- "With the benefit of his Father's example constantly before him, enforced and recommended by the precepts of his Mother, he was sedulously instructed in the doctrines of religion, as well as the whole circle of moral duties. She taught him from the very dawn of reason to fear God; to be conscientiously just and kind: affectionate, and charitable, and forgiving; to preserve, on all occasions, and under all circumstances, the most sacred regard to truth; to relieve the distresses and supply the wants of the poor and unfortunate. She aimed, at a

very early period, to enlighten his conscience; to make him afraid of sin; and taught him to hope for pardon only through the righteousness of Christ. The impressions thus made were never effaced."

"A great proportion of the instruction which he received, before he arrived at the age of six years, was at home with his Mother. Her school-room was her nursery. Here he had his regular hours for study as in a school; and twice every day she heard him repeat his lesson: here, in addition to his stated task, he watched the cradle of his younger brothers. When his lesson was recited, he was permitted to read such books as he chose. Being previously familiar with the historical parts of the Bible, his Mother turned his attention to Josephus and Prideaux, and the more modern history of the Jews. After this he read Rollin and Hooke; the histories of Greece and England; the history of New England, and their wars with the Indians. All his knowledge, in short, both of grammar, and geography, and history, was thus acquired; and few persons have a more accurate acquaintance with either than he had. This domestic education rendered him fond of home, and of the company of his Parents, and saved him from the school-boy coarseness and effrontery. His Father being particularly fond of the society of men of education and intelligence, they were to the Son most welcome, and their conversations with his Father excited in him the first desires after excellence and eminence of character." His story need not be further pursued: suffice it to add, that, until his twelfth year, his education was conducted under the

roof of Parents, to whom he was so much and so deservedly attached.

It is remarkable, that Dr Dwight was no less favoured than President Edwards with regard to his progenitors. The first ancestors of his Father's family in America came from Dedham in England, and settled in Massachusetts in 1637. From him Dwight was descended in the oldest male line; and he was able to refer to each individual in that line, including five generations, and reflect, that he was not only a member of the church of Christ, but had a fair reputation for piety.

RICHARD CECIL of London, when but a young man, had pursued a bold and determined career, till sunk in sin, hardening himself in infidelity, and instilling the same principles into others, there seemed no prospect of any change. His excellent Mother, however, had performed her part, and still remembered that it was good, not only to pray always, but not to faint, or desist upon any account. At last, one night he lay contemplating the case of his Mother:

"I see," said he within himself, "two unquestionable facts: first, My mother is greatly afflicted in circumstances, body, and mind; and yet I see that she cheerfully bears up under all, by the support she derives from constantly repairing to her closet and her Bible; secondly, That she has a secret spring of comfort, of which I know nothing; while I, who give an unbounded loose to my appetites, and seek pleasure by every means, seldom or ever find it. If, however, there is such a secret in religion, why may I not find it as well as my Mother ?"-He instantly rose and began to pray, but was soon damped, by recollecting that much of his Mother's comfort seemed to arise from her faith in Christ. Now, thought he, "this Christ I have ridiculed: He stands much in my way, and can form

no part of my prayers."-In utter confusion he lay down again; but, in process of time, conviction of sin continuing, his difficulties were gradually removed, his objections answered. He now listened to those admonitions of his Mother, which he had before affected to receive with pride and scorn; yet they had fixed themselves in his heart like a barbed arrow; and though the effects were concealed from her observation, yet tears would fall from his eyes, as he passed along the street, from the impression she had made on his mind. Now he would discourse with her, and hear her without outrage, which revived her hopes, especially as he then attended the public worship of God. Thus he made some progress, but felt no small difficulty in separating from his favourite connexions. Light, however, broke into his mind, till at last he discovered that Christ Jesus, so far from "standing in the way," as he once thought, was indeed the way, the truth, and the life, to all who come unto God by Him."

After such a change, it is not wonderful that Mr Cecil should have written and spoken with so much pathos on the influence of the parental character. "Where parental influence does not convert," he would say, "it hammers: it hangs on the wheels of evil. I had a pious Mother who dropped things in my way. I could never rid myself of them: I was a professed infidel: but then I liked to be an infidel in company, rather than when alone: I was wretched when by myself. These principles, and maxims, and data, spoiled my jollity." Again he says, "I find in mysays,—“ self another evidence of the greatness of parental influence. I detect myself, to this day, in laying down maxims in my family, which I took up at three or four years of age, before I could possibly know the reason of them."- Besides, parental influence must be great, because God has said it shall be so. The Parent is not to stand reasoning and calculating. God has said, that his character shall have influence: and so this appointment of Providence becomes often