al weakness is considered as great a charm as physical
delicacy, when we remember the charming picture of health and vigor
which he first gave us in "Christie Johnstone."

But while this admirable modesty of nature is the finest grace of
humanity, yet there are limits which cannot safely be overpassed. Nature
rarely suffers one sex really to pass the common boundary and take on
the special attributes of the other, seeming only to permit these
extreme cases as warning and landmark. The contralto in woman and the
tenor in man are delightful, but when the woman's voice is bass or the
man's treble the impression is ludicrous.

In due time the great distinction of sex rightly asserts itself, and the
delicate distinctions between man and woman, so easy to feel and so
difficult to state, begin to be recognized. Then the broad general law
of humanity will come to a more definite and varied expression in
special natures. And although the mother will never forget the common
ground of humanity which must underlie all training, she will prepare to
meet the peculiar claims of her daughter's nature, and help her to
understand and appreciate her needs and her powers.

The child instinctively begins to inquire into physiological questions
concerning marriage, birth, etc. There is but one way in which such
questions should be met--with perfect truth in perfect reverence. To
little children, utterly incapable of understanding the truth, the
pretty fables of the stork or the angel may be harmless, but all earnest
inquiries should be met with the simple truth as far as it can be
understood, and the promise of full explanation whenever the mind is
mature to receive it. The mother should anticipate this natural need of
the mind for knowledge, and should prepare her daughter for initiation
into the higher mysteries of human life by an acquaintance with life in
its simpler forms, where it is not complicated by human passions. The
functions of reproduction in vegetable life are the natural method of
instruction, and lead the way to a recognition of the sacredness and
beauty of the whole subject. The child's delight in the flowers of the
field is easily deepened into intellectual instruction by pointing out
the functions of the various organs and their beautiful adaption to use.
In the care with which variety is sought the important lesson against
intermarriage may be recognized, which fable and theology has surrounded
with such fearful imagin