is to last for life, to ascertain whether his
friendship is to be formed with a person who is desirous of
improvement, or with one who, living only for pleasure, is 'dead while
she liveth.'

You will say it is difficult to ascertain whether she is fond of
children or not. But I doubt it. Has she then no young brothers, or
sisters, or cousins? Are there no children in the neighborhood? For if
there are,--if there is but one, and she sees that individual but once
a week,--the fact may easily be ascertained. If she loves that child,
the child will love her; and its eye will brighten when it sees her, or
hears her name mentioned. Children seldom fail to keep debt and credit
in these matters, and they know how to balance the account, with great
ingenuity.

These remarks are made, not in the belief that they will benefit those
who are already blinded by fancy or passion, but with the hope that
some more fortunate reader may reflect on the probable chances of
happiness or misery, and pause before he leaps into the vortex of
matrimonial discord. No home can ever be a happy one to any of its
inmates, where there is no maternal love, nor any desire for mental or
moral improvement. But where these exist, in any considerable degree,
and the original attachment was founded on correct principles, there is
always hope of brighter days, even though clouds at present obscure the
horizon. No woman who loves her husband, and desires to make continual
improvement, will long consent to render those around her unhappy.

[13] It is worthy of remark, as a well established fact, that the
Chinese have an _Isan-mon_ or _mother_, to their silkworms! Her
duty is, not to attend to the eggs and the hatching, for nature
has made provision for that; but to take possession of the
chamber where the young are deposited; to see that it be free
from 'noisome smells, and all noises;' to attend to its
temperature, and to 'avoid making a smoke, or raising a dust.'
She must not enter the room till she is perfectly clean in person
and dress, and must be clothed in a very plain habit; and in
order to be more sensible to the temperature of the place, her
dress must contain no lining.

Now although every mother of children does not have the care
of silkworms, yet she has the care of beings who are in some
respects equally susceptible. And I trust no person who knows the
i