and performed.  And what shall be said for the despicable vanity which would barter opportunities of forming and directing a human character for the sake of trimmings and fancy buttons?  We cannot possess the confidence and friendship of our children without taking pains to deserve them.  If the father chooses to be “the governor” of his family, then the ex-governor, and nothing more, can he be to his grown-up children,—­an official once set over them by some Know-Nothing or other fatality, at length happily shelved with the rubbish of the nursery.  Nowhere are the external sanctities of domestic life more respected than in our Northern States, and here should its fairest promises be bountifully fulfilled.  Above all things, it is to be remembered that whatever moral power a man would have his children possess, that must he especially demand and exercise in himself.  The Law of the household must afford the luxury of a Conscience; for if ever the maxim “Summum jus, summa, injuria” be worthy of remembrance, it is in the management of children.  Well for those who realize that education is no merely lineal advancement, but a spreading and flowering in many directions! well for those who cultivate all the capabilities of love and trust in their children!  “When I think,” says Jean Paul, “that I never saw in my father a trace of selfishness, I thank God!” There comes the time when young men go forth to battle in the world, and the father prays bitterly for the power to endow them with the results of his own experience.  But only to him who has borne himself truthfully and honorably before his family can that good gift be given.

Upon the subject of religious education “Levana” is finely suggestive.  All cobweb-makeshifts which obscure the beautiful substance of a holy life are swept aside.  To the young, not what others say, but what they do, is right.  Children, like their elders, will resist all mere reasoning upon the disadvantages, whether temporal or spiritual, of actions to which they are tempted.  But they are ever ready to absorb the faith of the household, and to be nourished by it.  “For those who wish to give anything,” exclaims our author, “the first rule is, that they shall have it to give; no one can teach religion who does not himself possess it; hypocrisy and mouth-religion will bring forth only their like.”  The hardly noticeable habits of unrestrained intercourse, the indulgence of petty selfishness not acknowledged to ourselves,—­these are seeds of evil quick to germinate in a virgin soil.  No iteration of pedagogical maxims can annul the influence of some little mean or graceless act.  Let every parent take heed lest, through his own weakness and folly, he lose the divine privilege of obedience through confidence.  In the world, obedience through discipline must indeed come; but let it be unknown in the family as long as it may.  And of “mouth-religion” what fatal abundance!  To a child, it is no more than the creaking and rattling of a vehicle, which