ducate them to be prudent. We cannot teach this virtue until
children have had some experience; as far as their experience goes,
their prudence may be exercised. Those who reflect upon their own
feelings, and find out exactly what it is that makes them happy, are
taught wisdom by a very few distinct lessons. Even fools, it is said,
grow wise by experience, but it is not until they grow old under her
rigid discipline.

Economy is usually understood to mean prudence in the management of
money; we have used this word in a more enlarged sense. Children, we
have observed, may be economic of any thing that is trusted to their
charge; until they have some use for money, they need not be troubled
or tempted with it: if all the necessaries and conveniences of life
are provided for them, they must spend whatever is given to them as
pocket money, in superfluities. This habituates them early to
extravagance. We do not apprehend that young people should be
entrusted with money, till they have been some time used to manage the
money business of others. They may be taught to keep the accounts of a
family, from which they will learn the price and value of different
commodities. All this, our readers will perceive, is nothing more than
the application of the different reasoning powers to different
objects.

We have thus slightly given a summary of the chapters in the preceding
work, to recall the whole in a connected view to the mind; a few
simple principles run through the different parts; all the purposes of
practical education tend to one distinct object; to render our pupils
good and wise, that they may enjoy the greatest possible share of
happiness at present and in future.

Parental care and anxiety, the hours devoted to the instruction of a
family, will not be thrown away; if parents have the patience to wait
for their reward, that reward will far surpass their most sanguine
expectations: they will find in their children agreeable companions,
sincere and affectionate friends. Whether they live in retirement, or
in the busy world, they will feel their interest in life increase,
their pleasures multiplied by sympathy with their beloved pupils; they
will have a happy home. How much is comprised in that single
expression! The gratitude of their pupils will continually recall to
their minds the delightful reflection, that the felicity of their
whole family is their work; that the virtues and talents of their
children are the neces