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out that same image in enduring marble-but how insignificant are these achievements, though the highest and the fairest in all the department of art, in comparison with the great vocation of human mothers! They work not upon the canvass that shall fail, or the marble that shall crumble into dust - but upon mind, upon spirit, which is to last for ever, and which is to bear, for good or evil, throughout its duration, the impress of a mother's plastic hand.

I have already expressed the opinion, which all allow to be correct, that our security for the duration of the free institutions which bless our country, depends upon the habits of virtue and the prevalence of knowledge and of education. Knowledge does not comprise all which is contained in the larger term of education. The feelings are to be disciplined the passions are to be restrained — true and worthy motives are to be inspired a profound religious feeling is to be instilled, and pure morality inculcated, under all circumstances. All this is comprised in education. Mothers who are faithful to this great duty, will tell their children that neither in political nor in any other concerns of life, can man ever withdraw himself from the perpetual obligations of conscience and of duty: that in every act, whether public or private, he incurs a just responsibility; and that in no condition is he warranted in trifling with important rights and obligations. They will impress upon their children the truth, that the exercise of the elective franchise is a social duty, of as solemn a nature as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innocently trifle with his vote; that every free elector is a trustee as well for others as himself; and that every man and every measure he supports, has an important bearing on the interests of others as well as on his own. It is in the inculcation of high and pure morals such as these, that in a free republic, woman performs her sacred duty, and fulfils her destiny. The French are remarkable for their fondness for sententious phrases, in which much meaning is condensed into a small space. I noticed lately, on the title

DUTIES OF AMERICAN

MOTHERS. 267

page of one of the books of popular instruction in France, this motto "Pour instruction on the heads of the people; you owe them that baptism." And certainly, if there be any duty which may be described by a reference to that great institute of religion, a duty approaching it in importance, perhaps next to it in obligation, it is this.

THE FAREWELL.

BY MRS. EUNICE Ꭲ . DANIELS.

Now fare thee well, my own dear babe! dark fate hath left for me
No pang more bitter than the grief of parting thus with thee;
Thou 'rt gone and slumbering low!-in vain these scalding tears are
shed;

In vain I press thy cold, cold form, my own, my precious dead!

Ah! little deemed my careless heart, when warm in life I pressed The softness of thy velvet cheek, and hushed thee on my breast, And caught the fragrance of thy breath, the laughter of thine eye, Ah! little deemed my careless heart so fair a thing could die.

Though many a glorious dream was mine, and many a vision rare,
I had no thought of happiness in which thou didst not share;
And Hope in soothing accents spake of rapturous scenes to be,
And sent her dove through future years for many a bough for thee.

But all too soon the Spoiler came and marked thee for his prey;
Too soon within these fostering arms all faint and fading lay,
Just like a pale and withering flower, thy loved and cherished form,
Borne down in all its opening bloom by some o'ermastering storm.

Though mine hath been full many a tear, and many a bitter wo,
And many a drear and boding fear that mothers only know;
Yet when beside thy dying bed I trembled, wept, and prayed,
All other griefs grew light to think I could not give thee aid.

And when with bursting heart I came, and o'er thee wildly bent,
And saw that little quivering frame with wild convulsions rent,
And caught the low and murmuring groan, the faint and struggling
breath,

I could I think I could have died to win thee back from death.

Full well I knew life's flowery maze thy feet should never tread,
Yet when they came with solemn phrase and told me thou wert dead,
I feared to look upon thy face for fear mine eye might see
Mid death's still grace some wakening trace of life and agony.

THE

FAREWELL.

269

But hours passed on;- -thou didst not wake;-forever in thy breast
The mortal strife of death and life was sweetly hushed to rest;
I came; that throbbing pulse was still, so wrung with pain before,
And that soft eye was turned to mine with joyous look no more.

I know the angels' lot is thine; I know that thou art blest,
Where no wild dream of earthly wo shall haunt thy peaceful rest;
Yet mid the yearnings of its love this heart laments thee still,
For thou hast left a void within no earthly gift can fill.

But fare thee well!-around thy bed the wintry wind shall rave, And summer sunbeams warmly smile and autumn's harvests wave; And spring shall come with balmy breath to dress the flowery lea, And bring the rose and violet back, and every flower but thee!

23*

SECTARIANISM AND INFIDELITY.

BY RALPH EMERSON, D. D.

WHEN the remarkable era of Bible Societies arose on the Church, near the commencement of our age, she seemed herself, for awhile, awe-struck and lost in holy wonder and peaceful delight. The gowned prelate and the humblest dissenting presbyter, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Quaker, the dullest formalist and the most raving fanatic, the Antinomian, the Arminian and even the Socinian, - all found themselves strangely met together, not for some dread and unearthly struggle for final supremacy, but, for the first time, on a common platform, and in the metropolis of Protestantism, in the presence of thousands of every name and grade, with blandest eye and accent, to greet each other as christian brethren. Delight followed the surprise of so unwonted a meeting; and the surprise increased the delight. How they were all brought there, none could tell. A voice, better than that of the Hermit, seemed to have summoned them to a holier crusade against the common foe. Their pledges of unity appeared, and were sincere. The voice of their cordial greetings rolled far and wide through the ranks of their diverse communions, and were fondly, alas! too fondly received as the pledge, not only of a new era in christian activity, but also of a new dispensation, in which the voice of sectarian strife should be heard no more. And, indeed, for a season, a goodly one, the harsh notes of immemorial discord died away to a whisper. It was soon discovered, however, that the age for ending all controversy between religious sects had not yet come; (nor would we by any means intimate that the amicable discussion of dis

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