you studied how to direct its several faculties; how to restore those that are overgrown, and strengthen and mature those that are deficient? Have you been taught the best modes of communicating knowledge, as well as of acquiring it? Have you learned the best mode of correcting bad moral habits, and forming good ones? Have you made it an object, to find how a selfish disposition may be made generous; how a reserved temper may be made open and frank; how pettishness and ill-humor may be changed to cheerfulness and kindness? Has any woman studied her profession in this respect?

It is feared the same answer must be returned, if not from all, at least from most of our sex :-" No; we have acquired wisdom from the observation and experience of others, on almost all other subjects; but the philosophy of the direction and control of the human mind, has not been an object of thought or study." And thus it appears, that, though it is woman's express business to rear the body and form the mind, there is scarcely any thing to which her attention has been less directed.

LESSON LXXXVII.

Curiosity.-C. SPRAGUE.

It came from Heaven-its power archangels knew, When this fair globe first rounded to their view; When the young sun revealed the glorious scene, Where oceans gathered, and where lands grew green, When the dead dust in joyful myriads swarmed,

And man, the clod, with God's own breath was warmed. It reigned in Eden-when that man first woke,

Its kindling influence from his eyeballs spoke;

No roving childhood, no exploring youth,
Led him along, till wonder chilled to truth;
Full-formed at once, his subject world he trod,
And gazed upon the labors of his God;

On all, by turns, his chartered glance was cast,
While each pleased best, as each appeared the last;
But when she came, in nature's blameless pride,
Bone of his bone, his heaven-anointed bride,
All meaner objects faded from his sight,
And sense turned giddy with the new delight;
Those charmed his eye, but this entranced his soul,
Another self, queen-wonder of the whole!
Rapt at the view, in ecstasy he stood,

And, like his Maker, saw that all was good.

It reigned in Eden-in that heavy hour
When the arch-tempter sought our mother's bower,
Its thrilling charm her yielding heart assailed,
And even o'er dread Jehovah's word prevailed.
There the fair tree in fatal beauty grew,

And hung its mystic apples to her view:

Eat," breathed the fiend, beneath his serpent guise, "Ye shall know all things; gather, and be wise!" Sweet on her ear the wily falsehood stole,

And roused the ruling passion of her soul.
"Ye shall become like God,"-transcendent fate!
That God's command forgot, she plucked and ate ;
Ate, and her partner lured to share the crime,
Whose wo, the legend saith, must live through time.
For this they shrank before the Avenger's face;
For this he drove them from the sacred place;
For this came down the universal lot,

To weep, to wander, die, and be forgot.

It came from Heaven-it reigned in Eden's shades--
It roves on earth-and every walk invades:
Childhood and age alike its influence own;

It haunts the beggar's nook, the monarch's throne;
Hangs o'er the cradle, leans above the bier,
Gazed on old Babel's tower-and lingers here.

To all that's lofty, all that's low, it turns; With terror curdles, and with rapture burns;

Now feels a seraph's throb, now, less than man's,
A reptile tortures and a planet scans;

Now idly joins in life's poor, passing jars,

Now shakes creation off, and soars beyond the stars.

'Tis CURIOSITY-who hath not felt

Its spirit, and before its altar knelt?
In the pleased infant see its power expand,
When first the coral fills his little hand;
Throned in his mother's lap, it dries each tear,
As her sweet legend falls upon his ear.
Next it assails him in his top's strange hum,
Breathes in his whistle, echoes in his drum;
Each gilded toy, that doting love bestows,
He longs to break, and every spring expose.
Placed by your hearth, with what delight he pores
O'er the bright pages of his pictured stores!
How oft he steals upon your graver task,
Of this to tell you, and of that to ask!
And, when the waning hour to-bedward bids,
Though gentle sleep sit waiting on his lids,
How winningly he pleads to gain you o'er,
That he may read one little story more!

Nor yet alone to toys and tales confined,
It sits, dark brooding, o'er his embryo mind.
Take him between your knees, peruse his face,
While all you know, or think you know, you trace;

Tell him who spoke creation into birth,

Arched the broad heavens, and spread the rolling earth;

Who formed a pathway for the obedient sun,

And bade the seasons in their circles run;

Who filled the air, the forest and the flood,

And gave man all, for comfort or for food;
Tell him they sprang at God's creating nod-

He stops you short, with-" Father, who made God?"

Thus, through life's stages, may we mark the power That masters man in every changing hour;

It tempts him, from the blandishments of home,
Mountains to climb, and frozen seas to roam;
By air-blown bubbles buoyed, it bids him rise,
And hang an atom in the vaulted skies;

Lured by its charm, he sits and learns to trace
The midnight wanderings of the orbs of space;
Boldly he knocks at wisdom's inmost gate,

With nature counsels, and communes with fate;
Below, above, o'er all he dares to rove,

In all finds God, and finds that God all love.

LESSON LXXXVIII.

The Love of Country and of Home.-MONTGOMERY.

THERE is a land, of every land the pride, Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside; Where brighter suns dispense serener light, And milder moons emparadise the night; A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, Time-tutored age, and love-exalted youth. The wandering mariner, whose eye explores The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores, Views not a realm so bountiful and fair, Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air; In every clime, the magnet of his soul, Touched by remembrance, trembles to that pole: For in this land of Heaven's peculiar grace, The heritage of nature's noblest race, There is a spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest, Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside His sword and sceptre, pageantry and pride, While, in his softened looks, benignly blend The sire the son, the husband, father, friend

Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife,
Strows with fresh flowers the narrow way of life;
In the clear heaven of her delightful eye,
An angel-guard of loves and graces lie;
Around her knees domestic duties meet,
And fire-side pleasures gambol at her feet.

Where shall that land, that spot of earth, be found?
Art thou a man?- -a patriot?—look around;
Oh! thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam,
That land THY COUNTRY, and that spot THY HOME.

LESSON LXXXIX.

Columbus in Chains.-Miss M. J. JEWSBURY,

'Twas eve:-upon his chariot throne
The sun sank lingering in the west;
But sea and sky were there alone,
To hail him in this hour of rest;
Yet never shone his glorious light
More calmly, gloriously bright.

Nor clouds above, nor wave below,
Nor human sound, nor earthly air,
Mingled with that o'erwhelming glow,
Marred the deep peace reposing there;
The sea looked of the sky's fair mould,
The sky, a sea of burning gold.

Anon, a single ship, from far,
Came softly gliding o'er the sea:
Lovely and quiet as a star,

When its fair path is calm and free,
Or like a bird with snow-white wing,
Came on that glittering, gentle thing.