We almost listen to their voices, and number them among our household friends. We see the methods by which they became distinguished, the labors by which their eminence was purchased, the piety that rendered them beloved, and our desire of imitation is awakened. As by our chosen associates, the character is modified, so the heart exhibits some transcript of the models kept most constantly in its view.

The poets will naturally be favorites, in the library of an educated young lady. They refine sensibility, and convey instruction. They are the friends of nature and knowledge, and quicken in the heart a taste for both.

Your course of reading should also comprise the annals of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Perhaps human genius has never displayed itself more gloriously than in these departments. To throw life into inanimate canvass-to make dull marble breathe-indicate as much of creative power as may be deputed to man. The efforts of the Grecian chisel have been the world's admiration for two thousand years. though the colors of that pencil have faded, the names of those painters still survive in the freshness of immortality.

And

Mental Philosophy claims a high rank among the studies of youth. It promotes self knowledge, one of the direct avenues to wisdom. If the map of man be interesting, though darkened with crimes, and stained with blood, how much more, the peaceful map of the mind, that "mind which is the standard of the man."

I am persuaded that you would find Logic a subject of sufficient interest to enter into your course of reading. The art of thinking, so important to all who

have the power of thought, is possibly too little studied by our sex. A science, which, according to the concise definition of Watts, "teaches to use reason well, in inquiries after truth," is an important aid in the acquisition of all other sciences.

Ethics and sacred literature will undoubtedly occupy a prominent place in your system. These embrace a wide range, and comprehend some of the most gifted minds of which our world can boast. Books for pe

rusal on the Sabbath, should ever partake of the character of that consecrated day. The command, to rescue a seventh part of our time from the vanities of life, and select such topics of meditation and discourse as serve to prepare for a higher and purer state of existence, is indeed a great privilege. Let the Scriptures form a part of the study of every day.

All systematic reading should be with a fixed purpose to remember and to profit. Cultivate the retentive power, by daily and persevering exercise. If any one complains that she has a weak memory, it is her own fault. She does not take due pains to give it strength. Does she forget the period for meals, the season for repose ? Does she forget the appointed hour for the evening party, or to furnish herself with a fitting dress in which to appear there? Does she forget the plot of the last romance, or the notes of a fashionable piece of music? Yet some of these involve detail, and require application. Why, then, might not the same mind contain a few historical facts, with their correlative dates? Frankly, because it does not feel the same interest, nor put forth the same effort.

I am inclined to think memory capable of indefinite

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improvement, by a judicious and persevering regimen. Read, therefore, what you desire to remember, with concentrated and undivided attention. Close the book, and reflect. Undigested food throws the whole frame into a ferment. Were we as well acquainted with our intellectual as with our physical structure, we should see undigested knowledge producing equal disorder in the mind.

To strengthen the memory, the best course is not to commit page after page verbatim, but to give the substance of the author, correctly and clearly, in your own language. Thus the understanding and memory are exercised at the same time, and the prosperity of the mind is not so much advanced, by the undue prominence of any one faculty, as by the true balance and vigorous action of all. Memory and understanding are also fast friends, and the light which one gains will be reflected upon the other.

Use judgment in selecting from the mass of what you read, the parts which it will be useful or desirable to remember. Separate and arrange them, and give them in charge to memory. Tell her it is her duty to keep them, and to bring them forth when you require. She has the capacities of a faithful servant, and possibly the dispositions of an idle one. But you have the power of enforcing obedience, and of overcoming her infirmities.

To facilitate the management of memory, it is well to keep in view that her office is threefold. Her first effort is to receive knowledge; her second, to retain it; her last, to bring it forth, when it is needed. The first act is solitary, the silence of fixed attention. The

next is also sacred to herself and her ruling power, and consists in frequent, thorough examination of the state and order of the things committed to her. The third act is social, rendering her treasures available to the good of others. Daily intercourse with a cultivated mind, is the best method to rivet, refine and polish the hoarded gems of knowledge. Conversation with intelligent men, is eminently serviceable. For after all our exultation on the advancing state of female education, with the other sex will be found the wealth of classical knowledge and profound wisdom. If you have a parent, or older friend, who will at the close of each day kindly listen to what you have read, and help to fix in your memory the portions most worthy of regard, count it a privilege of no common value, and embrace it with sincere gratitude.

LESSON LXXXVIF.

THE BROTHERS.

WE ARE BUT Two-the others sleep
Through death's untroubled night:

We are but two-O let us keep
The link that binds us bright.

Heart leaps to heart-the sacred flood
That warms us is the same;

That good old man-his honest blood
Alike we fondly claim

We in one mother's arms were locked-
Long be her love repaid;

In the same cradle we were rocked,
Round the same hearth we played.

Our boyish sports were all the same,
Each little joy and wo :-
Let manhood keep alive the flame,
Lit up so long ago.

WE ARE BUT TWO-be that the band
To hold us till we die;

Shoulder to shoulder let us stand,
Till side by side we lie.

LESSON LXXXVIII.

I THOUGHT HE SLEPT.

I SAW the infant cherub-soft it lay, As it was wont, within its cradle, now Decked with sweet smelling flowers.

strange

A sight so

Filled my young breast with wonder, and I gazed
Upon the babe the more. I thought it slept—
And yet its little bosom did not move!

I bent me down to look into its eyes,

But they were closed; then softly clasped its hand But mine it would not clasp. What should I do? "Wake, brother, wake!" I then, impatient, cried; 66 Open thine eyes, and look on me again !" He would not hear my voice. All pale beside