enjoyment. It will be observed that our list of toys and playthings includes only those which may be made use of for the purposes of instruction and discipline, and these are the only kinds I would permit children to handle. Space need not be taken up in describing in detail the manner of mingling instruction with play, for after what has already been said the instincts of those who sympathize with children will guide them correctly.

4. CHILDREN SHOULD BE FURNISHED OCCASIONS FOR APPLYING THEIR POWERS OF KNOWING WHAT IS TRUE, BEAUTIFUL, AND GOOD.-Truth has been defined as the correspondence between thought and its objects. There are different kinds of truth, but no classification of them is needed here. The truths with which a child becomes first familiar may be called truths of perception. He learns by means of his senses that iron is hard, that ice is cold, that roses are red, that birds sing, that plants grow green in the sunshine, that animals need food, that water seeks a level, that the whole is equal to all its parts; and every effort should be made to widen his experience, for this will fix in his mind the correspondence between thought and thing. The stories children are so apt to tell arise mainly from defective observation or from the mistake they sometimes make of supposing that the pictures of their fancy are the perceptions of their senses. A child that comes to his mother and says that he saw a cow in the field that has five legs, or that he talked with his grandfather wno is a hundred miles away, does nothing at which a parent should be alarmed. Habits of correct ob

servation will make it all right. A judicious mother would take her child by the hand and go and look at the cow, or ask him to find the place where he met his grandfather, and a good lesson would be taught him. Always set a child right when he says a thing that is wrong, and never fail to give him every chance of learning what is true. A very young child can recognize the difference between truth and falsehood. If his brother tell him that his ball has rolled behind the door and he does not find it there, or that a bright penny is in one hand when he finds it in the other, he shows by his looks that he understands the deception that has been practiced upon him. I am firmly convinced that it is in great measure owing to the deceptions of which he is the witness on the part of servants, playmates, brothers and sisters, and even parents, that a child learns to tell falsehoods. How can he remain pure and innocent while he beholds constantly about him those who practice exaggeration, deception, and falsehood? Let all conduct in the presence of a child be open and sincere, let all words spoken before him be honest and truthful; and, furnished. with such occasions, he will not only learn what is true but be truthful. One who is himself truthful will trust others, and this is the ground upon which rests our earliest and purest faith.

Children appreciate the beautiful in objects at a much earlier age than is generally supposed. I have noticed well-marked evidences of such appreciation at the age of two years. This taste for the beautiful, like the early buddings of a tender plant, requires careful culture. The attention of children

may be easily called to beautiful flowers, trees and buds; to the rippling brook, the towering mountain, the rising or the setting sun; to pattering rain-drops, falling snow-flakes, and drifting clouds. Nature is everywhere full of beauty, and it may be used with an unsparing hand to make glad the hearts of children. Art, too, has beauties which are attractive to the young. Of course, they cannot appreciate a fine painting or piece of statuary; but they are keenly alive to what might be called surface beauty-that which depends upon color, form, proportion, motion, and like qualities. Let their thirsty spirit drink at these fountains until they come to find purer draughts deeper down. If every child could have a bed of flowers to plant and cultivate, or a pet bird or rabbit to care for, it would do much to improve his taste and awaken feelings of tenderness and love.

Clearly there is a power within us which God designed to enable us to distinguish between right and wrong. We may not make good use of it and accept error for truth, but that does not invalidate the certainty of the great fact that the faculty exists. Young children can discriminate between good acts and bad acts, and this power they seem ready to apply when proper occasions are presented. If the good is constantly exemplified in the conduct of those who surround a child and whom he loves, his sense of right and wrong must be quickened by the exercise it would receive. Would that all parents. felt the great importance of this fact! Besides, pains can be taken to point out good acts to a child-acts of honesty, justice, kindness, mercy, gratitude, pa

triotism. Life in every neighborhood has incidents of this kind, and history is full of them. Let his conscience be kept active by frequent appeals to it, and the child will grow daily in virtue.

What is said in the preceding paragraphs is predicated upon the assumption that the human mind has the power in itself to determine what is true, beautiful, and good, and that the duty of the instructor consists only in multiplying occasions for its exercise. But to arrange these occasions so as to answer their end is a work so delicate and difficult that none but the most accomplished teachers can perform it skilfully. Something, however, may be done by all who love children and sincerely desire to have them become virtuous and happy themselves and a blessing to mankind.

5. CHILDREN SHOULD BE ALLOWED FACILITIES FOR PRACTICE IN THE ELEMENTS OF THE ARTS.-The mental nature of children is characterized by vigorous imitative powers and a lively fancy. This leads. them to imitate and contrive things, and gives zest to many kinds of play in which they delight.

A slate and pencil or blackboard and chalk may be made very useful for the purpose of preparing children to write and draw. At first, a child might be allowed to make such marks as his fancy prompted or he might be encouraged to imitate simple figures of various shapes and sizes. If any one desires to see how much a child is interested in this kind of work, let him draw while the child looks on, the picture of a cat, a dog, a house, a stage-coach, and witness the effort he will make to imitate it. If a little

judicious help be given, a child will spend willingly an hour or more every day at such exercises.

Like instruction may be derived from other employments in which children greatly delight, such as coloring pictures or cutting them from paper or pasteboard; moulding various kinds of objects from terra cotta, such as animals, flowers, fruit, dishes, boats, &c.; building with suitable blocks, houses, castles, bridges, &c., or making of them tables, chairs, bedsteads, &c.; dressing dolls and arranging dollhouses; imitating the several varieties of work which they see going on in the kitchen, in the shop, and on the farm; and I recommend them all as means of instruction which may be made very valuable by judicious management. Much information can be furnished children likewise, by allowing them to visit shops and manufactories and to see machinery in operation.

Every father who has young sons would find it much to their advantage to provide a shop in which they could work, and supply it with suitable tools. Sets of children's tools can be bought for a few dollars, and their value in making boys more ingenious and active can scarcely be calculated. can derive similar benefit from needle-work, crochetwork, and embroidery. Whatever may be their cir cumstances, children should learn to work. Ability to handle tools will not prove amiss in any sphere of life.

Girls

Without such instruction as that now indicated, the productive powers of children would remain undeveloped, and all thinking persons must acknowledge that this would be a grave educational error.