jects as a garden presents, if it be neatly kept, are always valuable; for they do the heart good, and impart a kindly tone of feeling and refinement, and serve to keep out evil thoughts.

Encourage your children in a taste for flowers. Teach them to plant the seeds and roots, and to weed and keep them clean, and train and cultivate them; and the taste will remain with them when they grow old. It is on such things as these, in the recollection of bygone days, that local attachment is founded, making us delight to revisit the scenes of our childhood, and bringing back the wanderer from distant climes, to seek a last resting-place in the home of his fathers.

ON HEALTH.

The possession of health, is one of the greatest blessings that can be bestowed upon man, whatever be his rank or station in life; and to the labouring man it is so essential, that his very existence may be said to depend upon it. Without health, the labourer will be unable to pursue his labour, or obtain the means of supporting his family; and without health, the farmer will be unable to attend to his business, or take part in the labours of his farm. You cannot, therefore, be too careful to preserve unimpaired, that on which so much depends.

Under ordinary circumstances, the preservation of health will in great measure depend upon a person's habits, and upon the nature and sufficiency of his food, his clothing, and his habitation. On each of these we purpose to remark; and we will, in the first place, offer a few general recommendations in regard to health, by attending to which you will, it may be hoped, escape the visitation of sickness; whilst a neglect of them, will too probably entail disease and suffering upon you sooner or later.

Every excess, whether in eating, or in drinking, ought to be resolutely avoided. The appetite satisfied, anything beyond what is necessary for that purpose, is inju

rious; and numerous diseases spring from excess in this respect. In case of indisposition, which will not yield to the application of such simple remedies as are within every person's reach, it is always safest, and in the end will be the best economy, to seek the aid of a competent medical man, whose directions should be strictly adhered to.

Prevention is, however, always better than cure; and as illness may certainly be often prevented by avoiding excess in eating and in drinking, so may it often also be avoided by due care with respect to clothing. Nothing is more likely to occasion chill, and produce fever, than wet clothes. Whilst working, or taking violent exercise, the body is generally enabled to resist the effect of wet garments; but to sit still, or lie down in wet or damp clothes, is almost certain to produce cold, and most likely fever, rheumatism, or other serious ailments. You should therefore endeavour to be always provided with a change of clothing, so as to have dry garments to put on, in case of your getting wet. Wet clothes are the cause of many severe illnesses.

With respect to habitations, much might generally be done for increasing their comfort and convenience, as well as for rendering them more healthful. You should carefully avoid having any stagnant pools, about your dwellings. The exhalations from these, and from collections of dung, and vegetable and other matter in progress of putrefaction, are at all times pernicious, especially in hot weather, inducing fever and other illness. The ground immediately round the house, should be drained, and kept as dry as possible; and the manure and offal of every kind should be removed to such a distance, that no offensive exhalation may reach your dwelling.

The interior of the house is the wife's peculiar province, and her character and estimation with her husband and with her neighbours, will mainly depend upon the order and neatness with which it is kept; and when it is remembered that the comfort and health of her family will also greatly depend upon her activity and good management in this respect, no other incen

tive can be required to stimulate a correct and right principled woman to the vigilant performance of her duty.

However small the rooms, they should be kept dry and clean in every part, and the walls should be whitewashed as often as they require it. No wet clothes must ever be permitted to hang in the room you inhabit. The floors should be swept, and the dirt and rubbish of every kind removed to the dung-pit.

The rooms should be duly ventilated, and especially in the morning, when the doors and windows must be opened, and the fresh air freely admitted. In case of illness, particularly fever, this is of the greatest importance; for without such precaution, infectious fever is sure to spread, and attack every one within its reach. We cannot in fact too carefully attend to the cleanliness and ventilation of our dwellings, as a means of preventing the occurrence of illness, and of lessening its ravages, in case it should unhappily break out

among us.

The comfort of every one will greatly depend upon personal cleanliness, and even success in life may be considerably influenced by its observance; for where there is an habitual want of cleanliness in a family, it is certain that the indolent and slatternly habits in which it originates, will influence every family arrangement; whilst the same attention, activity, right judgment, and forethought, which secure cleanliness and good order in a dwelling, will generally extend to other matters, and conduce to success.

FOOD.

Food is the prime necessary of life, and we ought not only to endeavour to obtain a sufficient quantity, but also to direct our attention to the best and most suitable kinds of food, and to the most convenient and economical modes of providing it.

Without being the slaves of our appetites, it is right that every man, whatever his station in life, should

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endeavour to obtain food pleasing to the palate, as well as nutritious to the frame. Weakness of the stomach, may be produced by want of a sufficient variety of food, or by want of food sufficiently stimulating; and many diseases originate in the derangement or imperfect action of the organs of the stomach, arising probably from this source.

With a few trifling additions and changes, the food of the labouring man may often be rendered both more agreeable and more salutary than it usually is, as now prepared. Fish, when within reach, forms a valuable addition, whilst eggs, butter, honey, cheese, and bacon, may, by care and forethought, be obtained occasionally, in moderate quantities, by every one who has land or a bit of garden. Many an excellent meal, for instance, might be prepared from cabbages, boiled and chopped small, sprinkled over with salt and pepper, with the addition of a handful of meal or flour, a slice of bacon, or a little lard or fat of any kind; and the entire cost in money of such a meal for a whole family, would not exceed a few pence. Turnips, potatoes, carrots, or other vegetables, might be added to the mess according to circumstances. Onions, leeks, and garlic, are of great value in cottage cookery, and the Spanish people, who consume large quantities of each, are remarkable for their robust and healthy appearance.

Without entering into minute details, it may be mentioned, that salt, onions, chives, or parsley, and a little black pepper, not only give relish to a mess formed of potatoes, cabbages, or other vegetables, but also prevent flatulency, and those diseases arising from the too great use of vegetable diet; whilst butter, suet, the fattest parts of bacon, and other grease, should be reserved for laying over potato puddings, and frying watery kinds of fish, which are less nourishing if simply boiled.

Meat used cold is less nourishing, and does not go so far as when eaten hot; and if it be made into broth or soup, it goes twice as far as if roasted, baked, or boiled. All broths, stews, and hashes of meat, mixed up with vegetables, and flavoured with parsley, chives, and

onions, salt and pepper, are better and cheaper, and more nourishing and comfortable for the working man, than plain meat. A single ox-head, with a small quantity of oatmeal, or flour, and a few onions, leeks, cabbage sprouts, sliced turnips, or any kind of vegetable, will make twenty quarts of good broth.

If the fish be salt, make it into a pudding, chopped small, and mixed with potatoes, and some onions or chives, and seasoned with a little pepper; this is better than eating it simply boiled: or if a little lard or butter, or any kind of grease, can be spared, and mixed up with it, and it is then placed before the fire till browned on the outside, the mess will be much improved.

When cod, ling, hake, or other white fish is eaten fresh, it should be well cleaned and trimmed, then cut in pieces and put into the pot, and covered with water; some potatoes scraped or peeled should be added, with a little parsley, and chives or onions, chopped small, with pepper and salt; and whilst boiling, the liquor should be skimmed carefully, so that it may be quite clean. This makes a capital soup, whereas if the fish were simply boiled, and the water thrown away, half the dish would be lost.

In whatever mode the victuals are prepared, the utmost attention should be paid to cleanliness. Without it, the best food will be rendered unwholesome; and with it, indifferent food is rendered pleasing to the palate, as well as wholesome and nutritious. Emaciated looks as often proceed from want of proper care, skill, and cleanliness, in the preparation of the food, as from an absolute want of the means of obtaining it.

As to liquids, there can be no doubt that water, the drink of our first parents, is the most salutary. Beer may be fattening, and spirits, in case of fatigue or great exhaustion, may appear to give a temporary relief; but whilst millions of human beings have been injured or destroyed by the too free use of spirits and malt liquors, not one has been injured by the use of water, which possesses a purity that not only prevents, but often removes complaints; and it is proved beyond a doubt,