e us the following account of the progress of a favourite.

"The first year, she was an excellent servant; the second, a kind
mistress; the third, an intolerable tyrant; at whose dismissal, every
creature about my house rejoiced heartily."

However, servants are more likely to be praised into good conduct, than
scolded out of bad. Always commend them when they do right. To cherish
the desire of pleasing in them, you must show them that you are
pleased:--

"Be to their faults a little blind,
And to their virtues very kind."

By such conduct, ordinary servants may be converted into good ones: few
are so hardened, as not to feel gratified when they are kindly and
liberally treated.

It is a good maxim to select servants not younger than THIRTY:--_before_
that age, however comfortable you may endeavour to make them, their want
of experience, and the _hope_ of something still _better_, prevents
their being satisfied with their present state; _after_, they have had
the benefit of experience: if they are tolerably comfortable, they will
endeavour to deserve the smiles of even a moderately kind master, for
_fear_ they may change for the _worse_.

Life may indeed be very fairly divided into the seasons of HOPE and
FEAR. In YOUTH, _we hope every thing may be right_: in AGE, _we fear
every thing will be wrong_.

Do not discharge a good servant for a slight offence:--

"Bear and forbear, thus preached the stoic sages,
And in two words, include the sense of pages."--POPE.

HUMAN NATURE IS THE SAME IN ALL STATIONS: if you can convince your
servants that you have a generous and considerate regard for their
health and comfort, why should you imagine that they will be insensible
to the good they receive?

Impose no commands but what are reasonable, nor reprove but with justice
and temper: the best way to ensure which is, never to lecture them till
at least one day after they have offended you.

If they have any particular hardship to endure in your service, let them
see that you are concerned for the necessity of imposing it.

_If they are sick_, remember you are their patron as well as their
master: remit their labour, and give them all the assistance of food,
physic, and every comfort in your power. Tender assiduity about an
invalid is half a cure; it is a balsam to the mind, which has a most
powerful effect on the body, soothes the sharpest pains, and strengthens
beyond the richest cordial.

Ye who th