50 SYMPATHY BETWEEN A MOTHER AND HER DAUGHTER. vior, her mother's God. She will long to perpetuate through eternity that affection which shed such joys upon time. Her prayers will ascend in harmony with those of her beloved parent. And thus the strongest of all earthly influences will be incessantly operating to rivet her affections upon heavenly things. If you would have your daughter a Christian, spare no exertions to secure her confidence and love. Let it be your daily desire and study, month after month and year after year. Think not that you can secure her salvation by now and then a fervent prayer; by an occasional exhortation. Bring the influence of your own renewed heart, confiding and affectionate, to cheer her and bless her, in the morning, at noontide, and in the evening; in days of gladness and in hours of despondency. Let her feel the worth of a mother's Christian love, and her heart will doubtless catch the flame. 2. This mutual confidence is very important, because it secures great earthly happiness. A mother and daughter must necessarily pass much of their time together. If they are really and cordially friends, delighting in each other's society and conversation, each the repository of the other's thoughts and plans, the hours of domestic privacy must be hours of the purest enjoyment. This affection invests with new charms all the duties of the social circle. The busy scenes of the morning and the silent hours of the evening glide along on time's swiftest wing. If, on the other hand, this ardent affection be wanting, and the tie which binds the mother and daughter be only the iron chain of duty—if the child love not to unbosom herself to the parent, and the parent have no sympathies in common with the child-their dwelling, be it physically in the loveliest nook which ever adorned our globe, is morally in the cold and frigid zone which affection's sun can never warm. In that dwelling there can be no pure enjoyment; there may be destitution of suffering, but there can be no happiness. Heaven itself would be a dreary abode, were it not that heaven's Monarch is love, and that he has breathed his Spirit into every mansion there. 3. This confiding affection is important, because it is mutually beneficial. Its influence upon the character of the mother is as beneficial as upon the character of the child. If the mother would secure the affections of the child, she must herself cherish all those graces of character which irresistibly win one's love. She must curb her own passions, and watch with sleepless diligence over her own tongue. She must cultivate all the virtues of mind, and heart, and manners, which please. Thus she is continually herself in the most instructive school of moral discipline. A mother who does not possess a character which is truly lovely, can never secure the affec SYMPATHY BETWEEN A MOTHER AND HER DAUGHTER. 51 tion of her child. She may deceive neighbors who see her but occasionally; she may appear to them a pattern of piety and excellence; but her daughter, who sees her every day, cannot be deceived. If she hear the utterance of a censorious tongue; if she witness the gloom of a murmuring spirit; if she see the outbreak of a peevish or passionate temper, she may be a dutiful child, but she can not love her mother. But where there are this mutual confidence and esteem, the influence is equally salutary upon both parent and child. For the mother must cherish in her own heart those virtues which her daughter, as it were, sympathetically imbibes. 4. This mutual confidence is a great safeguard against temptation. A young lady is necessarily brought up in the privacy of home, and she is ignorant of this wicked world. She is in great danger of fixing her affections upon some object unworthy of her; and we have but little power over our affections when thus fixed. We cannot so easily say, This person I will love, and toward this person I will be indifferent. The affections of the aged do not thus obey their bidding; much less the affections of the young. Now many a young lady might have been saved from ruin, or from a connection which has made her wretched for life, or from a disappointment which has broken her heart, if a judicious mother had but secured her affection and confidence. But an intimacy, unknown to the mother, has sprung up, and the heart become so interested, that when the evil is discovered it is too late for the remedy, and years of anguish are the consequence. Had the daughter been in the habit of talking with her mother of all her acquaintances and all her thoughts, the danger would have been foreseen in its first approach, and the unsuspecting child saved a life of wretchedness. How many for want of this protection have been lost to themselves and to the world! How many through the protecting watchfulness of a judicious and confiding mother, have been saved from these dangers, and have lived to bless their families and to be the honor of their friends! It is said that there is in America far less of this confiding intercourse between mothers and daughters, than there is in Europe. Daughters are here often allowed to visit without their parents. They remain till a late hour in the evening engaged in, perhaps, exciting amusements, and then return under such protection as the incidents of the evening may have attracted toward them. A reform in this respect is very desirable. Let every mother be, as far as possible, the constant friend and the constant companion of her daughter. 52 BE HAPPY. A MOTHER'S KISS. BE HAPPY.-Yet not in studies above their years, or in irksome tasks, should children be employed. The joyous freshness of their young natures should be preserved, while they learn the duties that fit them for this life and the next. Wipe away their tears. Remember how hurtful are heavy rains to the tender blossom just opening on the day. Cherish their smiles. Let them learn to draw happiness from all surrounding objects; since there may be some mixture of happiness, in every thing but sin. It was once said of a beautiful woman, that from her childhood, she had ever spoken smiling, as if the heart poured joy upon the lips, and they turned it into beauty. May I be forgiven, for so repeatedly pressing on mothers, to wear the lineaments of cheerfulness. “To be good, and disagreeable, is high-treason against the royalty of virtue," said a correct moralist. How much is it to be deprecated, when piety, the only foundation of true joy, fails to make that joy visible to every eye! If happiness is melody of soul, the concord of our feelings with the circumstances of our lot, the harmony of our whole being with the will of the Creator, how desirable that this melody should produce the response of sweet tones, and a smiling countenance, that even slight observers may be won by the charm of its external symbols! Mrs. Sigourney. Written for the Mother's Assistant. A MOTHER'S KISS. BY GEORGE STEARNS. It is well known that the famous American painter, BENJAMIN WEST, attributed to maternal influence much of his character and success in his art. Having, in his boyhood, painted a portrait of his infant sister, his mother, by accident, caught a sight of it. Benjamin hung his head and averted his bashful eyes, for he did not think much of the picture, and expected to be laughed at. His mother, however, was a lady of taste, and, admiring the skill of her youthful son, she exclaimed, "O, he has painted a likeness of little Clare!" at the same time clasping him in her arms and kissing him. "That kiss," said West, "made me a painter." Young Benjamin with coyness crept To where his cradled sister slept, And that choice season stole, To pencil out her features fair, The while soft dreams were forming there, The image of her soul. His lines were true to living grace, The sleeping genius of her face, And all her wakeful charms. His mother chanced the sketch to see ;- And clasped him in her arms. PLAIN LODGING. He hung his head, as if to hide As now she kissed his cheek; What words can tell the gush of joy That blest his coming days. O, had we but a Sibyl's ken, Truth would reveal a startling claim Which crowns their honored sons. If but one kiss has made a West, A thousand times a mother's tear, 53 PLAIN LODGING. If you inure your child from his infancy, to sleep on a hard bed and away from the fire, where the blankets are sometimes well frosted in the morning, he will not only be a stouter and more hardy boy, but will learn to like his straw, or moss couch, better than any other. Of course, when he goes abroad, and meets with the most indifferent accommodations, it will give him no trouble. He will throw himself down wherever night happens to overtake him, and sleep far more soundly than the young heir apparent does in the palace. And as he advances in life, it being always more agreeable to rise than to fall, he will, if he chooses to make any change, find it much easier to go from a hard bed to a soft one, than he will to exchange his live feathers for the hard lodging cf a sailor or a soldier. On the other hand, the longer you indulge your dear little one upon his down pillow, the more reluctant will he be to leave it; and the more will he suffer whenever he finds a couch that is not so soft, whether among friends or strangers; and especially, when as the case may be, his altered circumstances compel him to change the luxurious habit which he had formed in his childhood. That is a very sensible remark of Dr. Paley, that, "the art in which the secret of human happiness consists, is to set the habits in such a manner that every change may be a change for the better." Dr. Humphrey. 54 PHYSICAL MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN. Written for the Mother's Assistant. PHYSICAL MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN. MR. EDITOR,-I desire, with an overflowing heart, to express, as a young lady, a wife, and mother, my gratitude that you have commenced the publication of "THE MOTHER'S ASSISTANT AND YOUNG LADY'S FRIEND;" a work that, if rightly conducted, will cause "future generations to rise up and call blessed," the one who projected so much for their happiness and usefulness. It is a sad fact, that, in this age of improvement, when every thing which liberality and benevolence can devise is done to impart knowledge on subjects not only intimately, but even remotely, connected with our interests, the very things the most needed are overlooked. We observe with pleasure the enterprizes of the day for the moral and religious culture of our natures, and yet are compelled to mourn that little, comparatively nothing, has yet been accomplished for our physical being; for our minds are not able to reap the full benefit intended, unless we are whole in body; and this we cannot be, as long as the present system prevails, and the seeds of disease and death are implanted as soon as we breathe the air of life! MOTHERS must be enlightened, or all which others do will amount to nothing. It would hardly be possible for one who has not thought upon the subject, to conceive the great lack of information on the part of mothers upon the very point which most intimately concerns them, namely, the physical education of their children. There is not the same allowance to be made now as in former years for this ignorance, for many and valuable works have been written upon the subject, not intended exclusively for physicians. Dr. Dewees of Philadelphia, and other eminent philanthropists of the medical profession, have portrayed in the strongest light, the duties and responsibilities of MOTHERS. "The Young Mother," too, by Dr. Alcott, is a manual of great interest and merit, and has already been made a blessing to thousands. But these works reach only a certain class. There are those who would gladly avail themselves of them, had they the means; and if others who are blessed "in basket and store," would devote the time given to Walter Scott, or Bulwer, in reading these volumes, they would not only enrich their own minds, and make themselves what their Creator intended they should be, but they might impart their knowledge to those "whose lines have not fallen to them in so pleasant places." There are still others, who, |