d, even in
childhood. That bold, independent, enterprising spirit, which is so much
admired in boys, should not, when it happens to discover itself in the
other sex, be encouraged, but suppressed. Girls should be taught to
give up their opinions betimes, and not pertinaciously to carry on a
dispute, even if they should know themselves to be in the right. I do
not mean, that they should be robbed of the liberty of private judgment,
but that they should by no means be encouraged to contract a contentious
or contradictory turn. It is of the greatest importance to their future
happiness, that they should acquire a submissive temper, and a
forbearing spirit: for it is a lesson which the world will not fail to
make them frequently practise, when they come abroad into it, and they
will not practise it the worse for having learnt it the sooner. These
early restraints, in the limitation here meant, are so far from being an
effect of cruelty, that they are the most indubitable marks of
affection, and are the more meritorious, as they are severe trials of
tenderness. But all the beneficial effects, which a mother can expect
from this watchfulness, will be entirely defeated, if it is practised
occasionally, and not habitually, and if it ever appears to be used to
gratify caprice, ill-humour, or resentment.

THOSE who have children to educate ought to be extremely patient: it is
indeed a labour of love. They should reflect, that extraordinary talents
are neither essential to the well-being of society, nor to the
happiness of individuals. If that had been the case, the beneficent
Father of the universe would not have made them so rare. For it is as
easy for an Almighty Creator to produce a Newton, as an ordinary man;
and he could have made those powers common which we now consider as
wonderful, without any miraculous exertion of his omnipotence, if the
existence of many Newtons had been necessary to the perfection of his
wise and gracious plan.

SURELY, therefore, there is more piety, as well as more sense, in
labouring to improve the talents which children actually have, than in
lamenting that they do not possess supernatural endowments or angelic
perfections. A passage of Lord Bacon's furnishes an admirable
incitement for endeavouring to carry the amiable and christian grace of
charity to its farthest extent, instead of indulging an over-anxious
care for more brilliant but less important acquisitions. "The desire of
power in exce