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42-Store Candles. R. B. - That candles improve by keeping is well known; but the proper season for storing them is not so clearly understood. A quantity of air and water are held in solution n al candles which have not been kept for some time: hence those made in March are better than others, evaporation having generally taken place before they are required for use, owing to the length of the day.

43-Umbrellas. J. J.-It is by these, as you term them, trifling matters, that real distinction of character is shown. In the management of umbrellas persons show their good or ill breeding. In approaching a lady with either in her hand, you should raise yours high enough to pass by hers, without interfering; and never carry it along with regard only to your own convenience, but be constantly on the alert to prevent the sharp points from touching people's faces or deranging

their dresses.

44-Walking the best Exercise. B. R.-Walking is, beyond compare, the most natural and salutary exercise: it is the most salutary, because it is the most natural; indeed, man, if he must be defined, is a walking animal. Carriageriding is a sort of cheating indolence. Horseback exercise is much better than carriage, but much inferior, under almost all circumstances, to walking. It has been said, and with some truth, that "riding is the best exercise for regaining health, and walking for retaining it."

45-Paper-hangings. E.-A safe rule with regard to paper-hangings, is to choose nothing that looks extravagant or unnatural; no staring pattern or colour, which would only be fit to make caps for May-day sweeps. Regard should be had to the uses of an apartment: a drawingroom should be light and cheerful, a parlour should look warm and comfortable without being gloomy: bed-room papers should be cool and quiet, and generally of a small pattern, and of such colours as harmonise with bed furniture and other fittings.

46-Origin of the use of Bride Cake. T. C.Bride cake is used at weddings, because of its origin in confarreation, or a token of the most firm conjunction between man and wife, with a cake of wheat or barley, from far (Latin), bread or corn. Dr. Moffatt tells us, that "the English, when the bride comes from church, were wont to cast wheat upon her head." Herrick says, speaking to the bride:

While some repeat

Your praise, and bless you, sprinkling you with

wheat.

47-Frequent Eating. A.-Throughout the pages of the Family Friend you will find useful

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information on this subject. The notion that eating very frequently, and in very small quantities at each time, is conducive to the health of the patient, appears to be an erroneous doctrine The eating of small quantities of food is certainly to be recommended; but the number of meals, or rather periods of eating, should never exceed three or four in the day, for unless the stomach have time for repose, it cannot perform its functions: eating hard biscuits in the intervals between meals is also injurious for the same reason.

48-Is House-keeping an essential part of Female Education? M. J. J.-Undoutedly it is, and our fair correspondent will sacrifice much happiness and comfort by neglecting these important duties. For a young woman in any situ ation in life to be ignorant of the various business that belongs to good housekeeping, is as great a deficiency as it would be in a merchant not to understand accounts, or the master of a vessel not to be acquainted with navigation.

If

a woman does not know how the various work of a house should be done, she might as well know nothing, for that is her express vocation; and it matters not how much learning, or how many accomplishments she may have, if she is wanting in that which is to fit her for her peculiar calling.

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49-Assistance to Sick Friends. S. E.-Unquestionably it is a duty to aid our friends in time of illness. No absurd notions of etiquette should prevent us from doing our duty. It is in the power young girls to make themselves very dear and very useful to their married friends, and to render them such services as are beyond all price. In sickness and sorrow the sympathy and presence of a beloved female friend are among the best of Heaven's gifts; while she who ministers to the afflicted is as much blessed as blessing. Let no young person stay away from a friend who is sick or in affliction from the fear that her inexperience will render her company undesirable; all who have strong affections and a ready power of sympathy can make themselves acceptable, and in endeavouring to do so, will increase their own happiness.

50-Every-day Duties. M. C.-Y our own good sense will tell you how to regulate your time. By adopting a certain system, and devoting specified hours to certain duties, you will accomplish much. There is time enough, in a well-ordered day, for everything that a young lady ought to do. Time enough for her morning and evening consultation with her conscience; time enough for a careful and exact toilet; for household duties, for study; time enough for exercise in the open air, for visits, for family

intercourse, for serious and light reading, for needlework and accomplishments; nothing need be left undone for want of time, if you only know how to economize that most precious pos session, and are resolute to perform all that you

can.

51-Ridicule. S.-It is a sad defect to be over sensitive, and one that will occasion you much vexation in life. It is true that few persons can bear to be laughed at; it is a mode of attack which admits of no defence; if you become the subject of it. and appear angry at the first laugh, it is sure to raise another at your expense, and so on. The best policy is to join in the laugh. The direst enmities have been occasioned by laughter. A striking instance of this is given by Miss Edgeworth, in her " Castle Rackrent," when she describes the bride of Sir Kit. just arrived from England, and laughing at all the peculiarities of her husband's Irish residence, particularly at the name of a bog on his estate. This was the foundation of an enmity, that caused her ladyship an imprisonment of seven years in her own house.

52-Food of Children. T.-We have numerous inquiries on the same subject. You will find many of your observations enlarged upon in page 27, a chapter we have especially devoted to this important branch of household care. The food given to children is generally unsuited to their age, both in quality and quantity; we do not draw the necessary distinction between the youthful and adult natures; and though we would not vindicate the wisdom of our own food, there can be no doubt that such articles as coffee, hot bread, rich or highly spiced dishes, pickles, wine, pastry, are far more injurious to the young than to the old. Their food should be of the best quality, and wholesome unadulterated articles should be carefully selected; but it should be a plain description of food, well, but simply cooked.

physiology, or pathology, are indispensable to the student or physician who would excel, or ever keep pace with the progress of others in his pro fession.

54-Forced Fruits. M. 1. B.-Forced fruits realise a high price from the early period at which they are brought to market, and not from superiority of size or flavour, as their dearness leads many to imagine. Indeed, forced fruits are very superior to those of natural growth: the former are obtained at a season when there is little light, whereas the latter are matured in the full blaze of a summer's sun. Thus, melons grown in frames, covered with mats, and carefully excluded from the influence of that solar light which is indispensable to their perfection, have, whatever may be their external beauty, none of that luscious flavour which the melon, when well cultivated, possesses so eminently. Our moralists have not overlooked this error. La Bruyère says:-"There are miseries which wring the very heart: some even want food; they dread the winter; others eat forced fruits; artificial heats change the earth and seasons to please their palates." Hume thus refers to this false taste of the rich :-"The same care and toil that raise a dish of peas at Christmas would give bread to a whole family during six months."

55-Care of Sleeping Apartments. G. C. W. -Sleeping rooms ought to be frequently and thoroughly ventilated. There are many of the continental practices, which, in this particular, are superior to our own. It Italy, for example, it is the custom of those who superintend the household concerns, to order that a separation of all the clothes that have been used during sleep be effected, and thus separately suspended from the windows, so as to get the benefit of free and full exposure to the purifying influence of the atmosphere. Many are the contrivances of modern ingenuity for the purpose of insuring an unobstructed circulation of air in rcoms-but where there is a door, and a window, and a chimney-place, all these contrivances may be dispensed with. Let the windows of the bedroom, however, be so constructed, as that they shall be capable of being drawn down as well as pushed up; and let it always be recollected, that no effectual ventilation can be accomplished without this plan of admitting condensed and purer, and giving an exit to lighter and impurer atmospheric matter. A good mode of airing bed-rooms, in which persons are constantly sleep

53-Uses of the Microscope. W. E. G.-The services of this instrument to the cause of science are invaluable. To the student of vegetable physiology the microscope is an indispensable instrument. By it he is enabled to trace the first beginnings of vegetable life, and the functions of the different tissues and vessels in plants. The zoologist finds it also a necessary auxiliary. Without it, not only would the structure and functions of many animals remain unknown, but the existence of numerous species would be undiscovered. It is to the medical student and practitioner, how-ing, is that of pumping them, as it is called; or ever, that the microscope commends itself for its utility. A new branch of medical study-histology, has been created by its means alone; while its contributions to morbid anatomy and

waving the door backwards and forwards for some minutes together, so as by agitation to favour the universal diffusion of the admitted air.

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56-Economy of Cooking. B.-It is generally admitted that the French excel in the economy of their cooking. By studying the appropriate flavours for every dish, they contrive to dress all the broken pieces of meats, and make a variety of dishes from vegetables at a small expense. 57-Nursery Education. F. J. From the earliest age children require the most vigilant care. He who has been reared in a brawling and ill mannered nursery can hardly be expected to ripen into a polite man. The elder members of a family should bear in mind that the influence of their own conduct will encircle the children like an atmosphere. There can be little happiness in that household in which the minutest offices are not dictated by a spirit of thoughtful courtesy and delicate consideration for others.

58-Infants' Dresses. G. S.-The age at which the change of an infant's dress becomes advisable, is somewhat a manner of opinion and circumstance, some mothers adopting the abbreviation as early as four months, others keeping the graceful sweep of long drapery twice that time. The season, too, must be consulted. But somewhere between the ages of four and eight months, the newcomer seems to crave a freer use of limb than the swaddling clothes will permit; and the disposition to creep about the carpet which now becomes developed, is also impeded by them.

59-Carving. C. H.-The art of carving is a very requisite branch of domestic management; it not only belongs to the honours of the table, but is important in an economical point of view; for a joint of meat ill-carved will not serve so many persons as it would if it were properly carved. Ladies ought especially to make carving a study, and should be enabled to perform the task allotted to them with sufficient skill to prevent remark, or the calling forth of eager proffers of assistance from good-natured visitors near, who probably would not present any better claim to a neat performance.

60-Gloves. J. J.-Before the art of weaving them was known, gloves were sometimes made of velvet, tiffany, and satin, as well as of various kinds of leather; at present, the skins generally made use of are chamois, kid, lamb, doe, dog, beaver, elk, and buff. Yeovil, in Somersetshire, is famous for their manufacture, as are Worcester and Woodstock; the latter for driving gloves. Of late years, the silk gloves of Derby have been much in request, and manufactories of thread, cotton, worsted, and other woollen gloves, have sprung up; but for dress, kid have always been most approved.

61-Cosmetics. F. H.-Our fair correspondent will find in our pages repeated injunctions

on the uselessness of many articles sold as necessary adjuncts to the toilette. Hair-dye and rouge, pearl powder and lotions, still figure on the catalogues of the perfumers, bearing evidence that somewhere they are in demand. Few of the consumers but have the grace to keep their obligations to such aids as quiet as possi ble-a very decided proof that as refinement progresses we grow ashamed of such empiricism, and that woman is daily learning to trust to higher charms than mere physical beauty to make her beloved and respected.

62-True Object of Taste in Dress. M.-The true object and importance of taste in dress few understand. Let no woman suppose that any man can be really indifferent to her appearance. The instinct may be deadened in his mind by a slatternly, negligent mother, or by plain maiden sisters; but she may be sure it is there, and, with a little adroitness, capable of revival. Of course, the immediate effect of a well-chosen feminine toilet operates differently in different minds. In some, it causes a sense of actual pleasure; in others, a consciousness of passive enjoyment. In some, it is intensely felt while it is present; in others, only missed when it is gone.

63-Affection necessary to Marriage. E.-You are right. What are termed marriages de convenance, are deeply to be deplored, and the unhappy consequences of such unions are frequent. Whatever be the motives for marrying, marriage is a dishonourable transaction when resorted to without the conviction of being able to sustain the character of friend; and whatever disappointments may ensue in marriage may be attri buted to a want of this endearing principle. Marriage involves the interests of two persons so intimately, that it is impossible for them not to be friends without being enemies. A state of indifference cannot exist where there is mutual dependence.

64-Industry essential. W. C. H.-If you are not possessed of brilliant talents, you can at least be industrious; and this, with steady perseverance, will compensate for many intellectual gifts. The history of almost every really eminent man, no matter in what pursuit he has signalized himself and served mankind, abounds with proofs that to industry, fully as much as to genius, have all really great human achievements been attributable. Great scholars, for instance, have always been, not merely laborious, but they have also studied both methodically and regularly. they have had for every portion of the day its proper and allotted study, and in nowise would they allow any one portion of time to be encroached upon by the study to which another

portion was especially appropriated in their fixed plan of action.

65-Flower-gardens. J. M. W.-The extent of the flower-garden depends jointly on the general scale of the residence, and the particular taste of the owner. There is no impropriety in having a large flower-garden to a small kitchen-garden or mansion, where the taste of the owner leads to such a deviation from common rules. As moderation, however, is generally found best in the end, the compass of ground appropriated to flowers must vary according to the size of the place of which that ground forms a part, and should in no case be of great extent. If the form of ground where a parterre is to be situated is sloping, the size should be larger than when a flat surface, and the borders of various shapes, and on a bolder scale, and intermingled with grass; but such a flower-garden partakes more of the nature of a pleasure-ground than of the common parterre, and will admit of a judicious introduction of flowering shrubs.

66-Nourishment of Meats. J. M.-To preserve in dressing the full nourishment of meats, and their properties of digestiveness, forms a most important part of the art of cooking; for these ends the object to be kept in mind is to retain, as much as possible, the juices of the meat, whether roast or boiled. This. in the case of boiling meat, is best done by placing it at once in briskly boiling water; the albumen on the surface and to some depth is immediately coagulated, and thus forms a kind of covering which neither allows the water to get into the meat, nor the meat juice into the water. The water should then be kept just under boiling until the meat be thoroughly done, which it will be when every part has been heated to about 165 degrees, the temperature at which the colouring matter of the blood coagulates or fixes; at 133 degrees the albumen sets, but the blood does not, and therefore the meat is red and raw. The same rules apply to roasting: the meat should first be brought near enough a bright fire to brown the outside, and then should be allowed to roast slowly.

67-Letter-writing. T. F.-If you are writing a letter, either upon your own business or upon that of the person you are addressing, not in answer to him, but opening the subject between you, follow the rule we have frequently alluded to, of clearness and of business brevity. Come to the point at once, in order that the person addressed may easily comprehend you. Put nobody to the labour of guessing what you desire, and be careful that half instructions do not lead

your correspondent astray. If you have so clea an idea of your operation in your mind, or if it is so simple a one that it needs no words, excep specific directions, or a plain request, you nee not waste time, but, with the proper forms of courtesy, instruct him of your wishes. In what ever you write, remember that time is valuable and that embarrassing or indefinite letters are a great nuisance to a business man. We need hardly remark, that punctuality in answering correspondents is one of the cardinal business virtues. Where it is possible, answer letters by return of post, as you will thus save your own time, and pay your correspondent a flattering compliment. And in opening a correspondence or writing upon your own business, let your communication be made at the earliest proper date in order that your correspondent, as well as yourself, may have the benefit of thought and deliberation.

68-Attention to Health in Youth. W.-The most precarious period of life is said to vary from the ages of ten to twenty-one years, when the frame is most prone to deformity; but particularly from ten to fifteen, when the body is in its most active state of growth. The most frequent cause of deformity at this most dangerous period is the over-exercise of the mind, to the neglect of the body, augmented in the female sex by the baneful use of stays. 66 'Many are the children," says a physician, "who have been born healthy and robust, the pride and hope of fond parents, having the rosy hue of health upon the cheek, the sparkling eye and laughing mouth; happiness and enjoyment, the certain attendants upon robust health, plainly marked upon their countenances; the voice, the active romping motion of the body, confirm it; but wait a little while, until the approach of the insidious age, the period when the body is at its highest progress of upward growth, the muscular fibres being still lax, the bones comparatively soft, when the powers of the system are so severely tried, nature requiring to be supported by the most careful watching and utmost aid of science, in supplying and regulating the quality and quantity of air, food, and exercise, so requisite at this period; whereas, instead of such judi cious attention, we often find that the too fond parent, ever and wholly absorbed with the mental education of his offspring, to the entire neglect, and even sacrifice of his bodily frame, at this most dangerous stage of his life, often fancies that it is the best age for mental training and activity; consequently, taxes both the mind and body of the youth to the utmost, by forcing him to employ all the hours of the day in study."

-Progress of Microscopic knowledge. T. W.-
ir own times, the Germans seem to have
the lead in histological observations; and
reputation of the well-known names of
nberg, Müller, Schwann, Schulz, Wagner,
r, and Valentin, principally depends on
iscoveries they have made by means of the
scope. In England, the names of Car-
r, Todd, Bowman, Owen, Cooper, Busk,
ett, Bowerbank, and others are connected
microscopic research.
-Marriage. J. C. H.-We by no means
mend a separation. Try by mild and
liating kindness to regain the affections
ps only temporarily estranged, and which
been probably occasioned by coldness or
>peculiarities of manner of which you may
e conscious. When marriage is a perfectly
issed, voluntary act; the result of reflection
individual preference, and not of selfish
lation or levity; above all, where there has
no deception, it is the most sacred of all
gements, and nothing but death can war-
its dissolution.

-To extract the Essential Oil from any ser. G.-A correspondent has supplied us the following receipt, in answer to your ication:-Take any flowers you like, which sify with common sea-salt in a clean earthen ed pot. When thus filled to the top, cover ell and carry it to the cellar. Forty days rwards put a crape over a pan, and empty whole to strain the essence from the flowers ressure. Bottle that essence and expose it or five weeks in the sun, and dew of the ning, to purify. One single drop of that ence is enough to scent a whole quart of ter.

'2-Fixed attention. E. R.-A proper appli-
ion of your reasoning faculties will enable
1 to avoid wandering thoughts, better than
7 rules we could give you. If you find your
ad incapable of fixed application to a book
ich you are reading, or a translation you
making, or some new music you are learn-
do not sit over your task in vain, with eyes,
ich, though fixed on the page, do not convey
e idea to the mind; but immediately change
ur occupation for something you can attend
and when you have succeeded in fixing your
tention on any task, however light, you have
anaged your mind, and economized your time,
etter than in reading the profoundest work
ith wandering thoughts.

73-Situation of Governess. S.-A dependent
ituation is not necessarily a mercenary one; it
this idea of the mercenary being attached to

dependence that degrades it, as nothing is more degrading than mere mercenary views. Those guided by them are true hirelings; but no governess is, or ought to be, a hireling. The office of a governess differs in some respects from that of a public teacher, but is not wholly without analogy in nature; for they may be regarded as the workers in the human hive. Their duty is to nourish the human embryos from stage to stage of intellectual and moral development, till able to enter on the cares and duties of mature existence, or at least till they arrive at that chrysalis state when they must pause to digest attainments, and repose awhile ere entering on the arena of life.

74-Cabinet for Microscopic Objects. E. M. H. -The author of "Microscopic Objects" recommends a cabinet with shallow drawers-twelve of them occupy a depth of four and a half inches -the most convenient width from front to back being six inches. Into these shallow drawers the slides containing the objects are laid flat in double rows. The outer ends of the slides are made to fit into a ledge in the front and back of each drawer. The inner ends of the sliders meeting in the middle of the drawer are kept down by a very thin slip of wood covered with velvet. In this way the sliders do not shake when the cabinet is moved from place to place; every object is seen without removal, and no loss of time is occasioned in making a selection. Some persons have their sliders arranged edgewise, in boxes made in imitation of books; the ends of the sliders being held by a sort of rack. This may sometimes be convenient, but the other form is preferable.

75-Lending and borrowing Books. C. W. G.Your complaints are doubtless just. It is not uncommon for persons to borrow books, and so neglect to read or return them, that at last they forget that such books are in their possession, or forget to whom they belong, or perhaps even imagine they are their own. Each library, however small, should be furnished with an inventory and register of any book which may be lent, when and to whom, that if the borrower should omit or forget to return it, the lender may be reminded to apply for his property. In like manner, a careful person will keep a list of borrowed books in his or her possession, that they may be made use of, and duly returned to their respective owners. It is very well to keep all borrowed books on a shelf entirely apart from our own, and in a conspicuous place

that the eye may affect the heart with a sense

of honesty in a matter where it is too frequently disregarded.

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