THE ROLLO CODE OF MORALS; or the Rules of Duty for Children. Arranged with questions for the Use of Schools. By Jacob Abbott. Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 47, Washington street. 1841. This is a small book of only 139 pages, but possessing greater intrinsic value, than the sum total of the merit of hundreds of books which might be named, of double the size. It contains twenty-one lessons or chapters, which "explain and illustrate to young children, their most simple and obvious duties, and those traits of moral character, which it is most desirable should be early formed." In each lesson, the author relates some story, or presents some illustration or example, for the purpose of enforcing the moral sentiment which is designed to be impressed upon the mind. Instruction conveyed in this way, is generally very interesting to children, and makes an impression, which mere precept never can do. We therefore strongly recommend this publication to parents, as an excellent auxiliary in the responsible duty of training aright their children. It would be a profitable exercise for the father to read the book to his children, taking only one lesson at a time, and closing by asking the questions at the end of the lesson, and such others as may occur to him. Or, the mother may take one of the children at a time at her side, and request it to read aloud to her one of the chapters, endeavoring at the same time, to awaken a lively interest in the mind of the child, by making such remarks and asking such questions. as will have that tendency. In our next number, we shall present an extract from this book. THE HANNAHS; OR MATERNAL INFLUENCE ON SONS.- By Rev. Robert Philip, author of the Marys, Marthas, Lives of Bunyan and Whitefield, &c. New York: D. Appleton & Co., and Tappan & Dennet, Boston, 1841. This is a new work from the prolific pen of Mr. Philip, and lays the ladies under fresh obligations to him, for his abundant labors of love for their good. There are twelve chapters. The first is on "The Peculiarities of Christianity toward Mothers;" the second, "A Maternal Lamp;" the third, "Eve's Maternal Character;" the remaining nine chapters treat of Maternal Influence on Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, John the Baptist and the Savior. The book contains a great amount of useful instruction, deduced from Scripture biography, which cannot fail if read with prayer, to have a most beneficial tendency on the minds of mothers. It will make them feel their responsibility to train up their children for God and heaven, and will induce them, we must think, to lay themselves out for this great work. THE YOUNG LADY'S FRIEND. Written for the Young Lady's Friend. "MOTHER DOES THAT." BY REV. HARVEY NEW COMB. "You have a fine, tasteful collection of plants and flowers, Miss P. You have these to attend to, I suppose?" "No;" replied the young lady; "mother does that." She was too busy at her French, and music, and all the routine of a fashionable and polite education, to attend to such rustic duties as the watering of flowers and the trailing of plants; and there was serious danger that the delicate texture of her soft hand might be injured by coming in contact with the watering pot. Moreover, she had not strength for such duties. "Mother must do that." There is certainly a most serious and alarming defect in the education of daughters, both in city and country. In an address delivered at the anniversary of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, in 1839, by Rev. D. Anderson, one of the Secretaries of the American Board of Foreign Missions, I find the following remarks: "Missionaries destined to foreign lands, pay as much attention to health as other men, in the selection of partners for life. And yet, perhaps half who have gone forth of late years, as the wives of missionaries, if not a still greater proportion, had, as we now think, insufficient health, when they departed for their distant, and often not very salubrious fields of labor. How is it in the other educated walks of life with the wives of ministers, lawyers and physicians? Must the same be said of them, when they entered upon the duties and cares of life? The subject has been, and still is, strangely overlooked. A physician declared, a few years since, that not more than one adult female in ten, in the whole circle of his acquaintance, enjoyed complete health. In no other civilized country in the world, is there such deficiency of health among the more educated females such a proportion of them 'Too weak to bear The insupportable fatigue of thought,' as in our own otherwise highly favored land." These are astounding facts, truly. And what is the cause? Some will doubtless be sickly, despite of every precaution. But, according to this statement, the healthy are the exceptions, and the 66 MOTHER DOES THAT." 207 sickly the general rule. How does it happen that the mothers are so much better able to endure hardship than the daughters? Is it not to be attributed to the different training which the mothers had when they were young? And, is it not the fact, that the daughters are now too tenderly reared? Do not many mothers set out with the determination to make ladies of their daughters at their own expense, and with the impression that no laborious occupation is consistent with ladyship? And, is not this feeling too prevalent, also, with the daughters? So, if there is any thing to be done, requiring any exertion of strength, mother must do that if there is any thing to be done, which will soil the hands, mother must do that; thus cultivating a helpless sort of delicacy at the expense of good sense, and filial duty. I was some years ago acquainted with a family in which the daughters were trained after this fashion. The mother was the drudge in domestic affairs, while the daughters were variously occupied with study, "light_literature," "light work," or in doing the honors of the parlor. One of them went out as the wife of a missionary, and in a few years returned, a helpless invalid. There is perhaps no greater defect in female education, than the want of a thorough, practical acquaintance with household affairs; and no one, probably, which operates so injuriously upon the health of young females. It is a universal principle, in the human consttution, that any organ of the body, or faculty of the mind is strengthened by exercise; and without active exercise, it must necessarily lose its energy and vigor. This principle applies with great force to the subject in hand. Let young ladies be occupied with light employments and light studies, and they will be feeble in body, and light minded and frivolous. But let them be a suitable proportion of every day, engaged in occupations which will call into vigorous exercise the whole system, and they will be strong and vigorous in body; and let a suitable proportion of their studies be such as to call into exercise the power of analysis, of comparison, of reason, and of judgment, and they will have strong and vigorous minds. And there is no occupation better fitted to furnish the physical exercise required, and to qualify young ladies for their station in life, than attention to household affairs. Nor can there be a greater mistake than to suppose attention to domestic duties, incompatible with the acquisition of a good education. A knowledge of household affairs is, indeed, an indispensable part of a good female education. But the young lady who spends several hours every day in such domestic employments as produce a healthful glow, and bring into 208 A BEAUTIFUL SENTIMENT. vigorous action the muscles of the body, will accomplish twice as much at her studies, as the pale-faced parlor toy, who sits all day long at her fine needle work, chattering French, or languishing over the literary "Souveneur," or the "last new novel." And I may add, she will make a thrice better wife. Boston, August, 1841. A BEAUTIFUL COMPLIMENT. D'Israeli is well known in the world of genius and taste as the compiler of the "Curiosities of Literature," published forty years ago. Lately, other volumes have been sent forth by him, entitled "Miscellanies of Literature"-curious, ancient, and entertaining. The venerable author is now blind, and indebted much to a noble spirited and affectionate daughter, of whom the fond father thus beautifully speaks in his introduction to the last volumes: "Public favor has encouraged the re-publication of these various works, which, often referred to, have long been difficult to procure. It has been deferred from time to time with the intention of giving the subjects a more enlarged investigation; but I have delayed the task till it cannot be performed. One of the calamities of authors falls to my lot; the delicate organ of vision with me has suffered a singular disorder; a disorder which no occulist by his touch can heal, and no physician by his experience can expound; so much remains concerning the frame of man unrevealed to man! In the midst of my library I am, as it were, distant from t. My unfinished labors, frustrated designs, remain paralyzed. With a joy us heart I wander no longer through the wide circuit before me. The stricken deer' has the sad privilege to weep when he lies down, perhaps no more to course amid those far-distant woods where once he sought to range. Although thus compelled to refrain, in a great measure, from all mental labor, and incapacitated from the use of the pen and the book, these works, notwithstanding, have received many important corrections, having been read over to me with critical precision. Amid this partial darkness I am not left without a distant hope, nor a present consolation; and to my daughter who has so often lent to me the light of her eyes, the intelligence of her voice, and the careful work of her hand, I must ever owe the debt immense' of paternal gratitude.” THE HUMAN VOICE. God has made the whole earth vocal with sweet sounds. The untravelled forest echoes the notes of the wild bird, and the habitations of men are made glad by the song of the feathered minstrel. But, above all, the human voice that combines the highest charm of sweet sound, with the inspiration of thought, is given for no ordinary purpose of earthly pleasure. In its whisper of affection, how grateful! In its expression of religious devotion, how exalted! For its solace in trouble, how dear! For its participation in joy, how unspeakable! We have sufficiency, when we have what nature requires. AN ODD PROCESSION. 209 STEPHENS' TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AMERICA. - We make the following extract from Mr. Stephens' late popular work, "Travels in Central America." It describes one scene in the fête of La Concepcion, a fête always honored among Roman Catholics, and shows the superstition and ignorance of that deluded and degraded people. The place is Guatimala, a city on the Pacific. ED. AN ODD PROCESSION. In the afternoon was the procession in honor of the virgin. Although Guatimala was dull, and, by the convulsions of the times, debarred all kinds of gaiety, religious processions went on as usual, and it would have been an evidence of an expiring state to neglect them. All the streets through which the procession was to pass were strewed with pine leaves, and crossing them were arches decorated with evergreens and flowers; the long balconied windows were ornamented with curtains of crimson silk, and flags with fanciful devices. At the corners of the streets were altars, under arbors of evergreens as high as the tops of the houses, adorned with pictures and silver ornaments from the churches, and the whole covered with flowers. Rich as the whole of Central America is, in natural productions, the valley of Gautimala is distinguished for the beauty and variety of its flowers; and for one day the fields were stripped of their clothing to beautify the city. I have seen great fêtes in Europe, got up with lavish expenditure of money, but never any thing so simply beautiful. My stroll through the streets before the procession was the most interesting part of the day. All the inhabitants, in their best dresses, were there: the men standing at the corners; and the women, in black mantillas, seated in long rows on each side; the flags and curtains in the balconied windows, the green of the streets, the profusion of flowers, the vistas through the arches, and the simplicity of manners which permitted ladies of the first class to mingle freely in the crowd and sit along the street, formed a picture of beauty that even now relieves the stamp of duluess with which Gautimala is impressed upon my mind. The procession for which all these beautiful preparations were made, opened with a single Indian, old, wrinkled, dirty, and ragged, bareheaded, and staggering under the load of an enormous bass drum, which he carried on his back, seeming as old as the conquest, with every cord and the head on one side broken; another Indian followed in the same ragged costume, with one ponderous drumstick, from time to time striking the old drum. Then came an Indian with a large whistle, corresponding in venerableness of aspect with the drum, on which, from time to time, he gave a fierce blast, and looked around with a comical air of satisfaction for applause. Next followed a little boy about ten years old, wearing a cocked hat, boots above his knees, a drawn sword, and the mask of a hideous African. He was marshalling twenty or thirty persons, not inaptly called the devils, all wearing grotesque and hideous masks, and ragged, fantastic dresses; some with reed whistles, some knocking sticks together; and the principal actors were two pseudowomen, with broad brimmed European hats, frocks high in the necks, waists across the breast, large boots, and each with an old guitar, waltzing and dancing an occasional fandango. How it happens that these devils, who, of course, excited laughter in the crowd, came to form part of a religious procession, I could not learn. The boys followed them, just as they do the |