contracts? Can such improvident marriages be right, or honourable? Is not the common maxim true, that "when poverty enters in at the door, love flies out at the window?" How, then, can happiness be expected in the married state, unless we render ourselves worthy of it by previous preparation, and by prudent and reasonable conduct?

Young persons too often think themselves old and wise enough to marry, and take upon themselves the management and control of a family, before they have become able to regulate their own headstrong passions; and, regarding marriage as a kind of lottery, they recklessly plunge into the most important of all earthly engagements, without consideration, and without having made any provision for discharging its obligations.

How common is it to see two individuals marry, and bring helpess beings into the world, without having made the slightest provision for their support, and whose own subsistence, from the very commencement of their union, depends altogether upon resources which sickness, and a thousand accidents, may in an instant destroy! Such persons may appeal to Scripture, and endeavour to shelter themselves under the plea of trusting to Providence: but Providence has given us reason for the regulation of our conduct; and to neglect the admonitions of reason is to tempt Providence, and set its dictates at defiance.

To descend to the level of irrational beings, and to cast our offspring upon the world, with as little consideration about their future well-being as the ostrich shows, when she drops her egg into the sand, and leaves it to be hatched by the sun, cannot surely be a proper reliance on Providence. It is, on the contrary, direct improvidence, such as can only result from a degradation of the higher faculties of our nature; and it produces results, which daily cause the good and humane to weep.

No rational creature is justified, either in the sight of God or man, in putting him or her self in the position of bringing human beings into the world, without the means of providing for their support; and he who be

comes a father, without a prospect of being able to keep his children from the miseries of want and beggary, is guilty of a crime very little inferior, in a moral sense, to that of exposing his child to perish on the highway.

We by no means deny to any class of the community, but on the contrary would earnestly wish to secure to every class, all those comforts and enjoyments which spring from the exercise of domestic virtues and the social affections: but every individual, of every class, is bound to keep the animal impulses under the control of reason; and so to act as not to wreck his own happiness, and the happiness of others, by a disregard of the dictates of prudence, thereby levelling himself with the brutes of the field.

Those who are about to enter into the married state should ask themselves, or else they should be asked, whether they are aware of the duties and the burthens it will bring upon them, and if they have a reasonable prospect of being able to meet these when they come? -If they have not, they will assuredly be preparing a life of misery and privation for themselves and their offspring. In so acting, they will likewise injure their neighbours, by throwing upon them burthens which they themselves ought to support, and by bringing more labourers into the world to take employment and food from those who may already not have enough.

TRAINING OF CHILDREN.

The instruction of your children cannot commence too early. Every mother is capable of teaching her children obedience, humility, cleanliness, and propriety of behaviour; and it is a delightful circumstance that the first instruction should thus be communicated by so tender a teacher. It is by combining affectionate gentleness in granting what is right, with judicious firmness in refusing what is improper, that the happiness of children is promoted, and that good and orderly habits are established. If children are early trained to be docile

and obedient, the future task of guiding them aright will be comparatively easy.

The training and education of children, can, however, be only regarded as a means to the attainment of an end; for all acquirements, all learning, are valueless, if they do not make us better in our several relations of parents, children, husbands, wives, and unless they lead us to the practice of that divine precept of our religion, "Thou shalt do unto others as thou wouldest wish others to do unto thee:"

Supposing, then, that you have secured for your children the benefits of education, that they have attended an infant and afterwards an adult school, and that they have been advanced in the different branches of instruction, as far as is necessary for the pursuits in life to which they are destined-something else is yet required of those to whom an offspring has been given --you are still called upon, as parents, to attend to their religious and moral training; and to take care that, after right precepts have been imparted, your children may not be corrupted by your own evil example.

If a parent supposes that his vices can be hidden from his children, he is greatly mistaken; for children are quick in the perception of what is wrong, and in reasoning upon it, and imitating it; and if, with the words, "Thou shalt not steal," in your mouth, you nevertheless make use of anything not your own, or take undue advantage of others, you are practically destroying the force of the precept, and teaching your children to be dishonest.

How can it be expected that your children will have a horror of drunkenness, if they ever see you drunk, or if drinking is talked of by you as an object of gratification? If you encourage your children by promises to confess a fault, and afterwards punish them for it, do you not practically discourage their afterwards telling you the truth? Or if you hold that nothing is to be said which can in any way injure your own interests, and say, "Remember not to tell so and so," can you expect that your child will not lie, whenever it suits his own purpose?

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If you are violent and intemperate in your demeanour, if your language is coarse and brutal, if your manner is overbearing and insolent, will not your children be infected by your example; and are you not crushing in the bud the truly estimable and Christian qualities of gentleness, forbearance, and charity? It has been well said, that Drunkenness expels reason, distempers the body, inflames the blood, impairs the memory, is a witch to the senses, a devil to the soul, a thief to the purse, a beggar's companion, a wife's woe, and children's sorrow; and that a drunkard is the picture of a beast, a self-murderer, one who drinks to the good health of others, and destroys his own, as well as the happiness of those whom he ought to protect, love, and cherish." You need not be guilty of this vice, or the other vices, in a gross degree, to influence your children by your example; and you must abstain from vice altogether, if you wish to train up your children to the proper fulfilment of their duties, so as to secure their welfare here, and their eternal happiness hereafter.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

The following Tables of Weights and Measures are inserted here, as being likely to be useful to the far

Fine

Note.-An Imperial Bushel of fine Wheat will weigh 63 lbs., whilst much of the inferior sorts will not exceed 53 lbs. Oats will weigh 42 lbs., ordinary Oats only 36 lbs. per Imperial Bushel. Fine Barley weighs 55 lbs., good 52 lbs., and ordinary 48 lbs. per Imperial Bushel.

Note.-70 yards square, or a square of 70 yards each way, make one statute acre, nearly.