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poses, that by intuitive discernment she shall discover the best possible manner of discharging them, without subjecting herself to the toilsome discipline of preparatory study. She can per ceive no immediate connection between a familiar acquaintance with Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding and her empacity for thre formation of the youthful character; or between Smith's Wealth of Nations, and her ability to superintend the internal regulations of a family. Indeed, it is more than probable that the allusion may excite a smile, but that smile possesses no magic power to dissolve the connection. Such a course of reading brings her under the government of reason, compels her to think, to calculate, to compare, and to methodize. will render her as much superior to the individual who treats it with indifference, as the polished European is to the untutored African.

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This discipline will qualify you for any station which you may occupy, however important, or any duty which you may be expected to discharge, however trifling. By this expression we would not countenance the prevailing opinion that any duty is trifling. It may be so by comparison, but not in itself. A single pin, in a complicated machine, may be an insignificant

object, when compared with the fly wheel, or the impelling force; yet, if the pin be displaced, the harmony of the whole will be interrupted.

The minor duties of domestic life are as essential to the happiness, the prosperity, and the honour of a family, as those which are more conspicuous. By their variety and the rapidity of their recurrence, involving the responsibility of so many agents, they require the constant presence of an observing and directing mind to superintend them. This superintendance, to avoid the appearance and the reality of incessant application, watching every motion of another, or giving in systematic detail, every specific order at the moment when it is to be executed, demands a high degree of mental culțivation-"As in the superintendance of the universe, wisdom is seen in its effects, and as in the visible works of Providence, that which goes on with such beautiful regularity is the result, not of chance, but of design; so that management which seems the most easy is commonly the consequence of the best concerted plan; and a well concerted plan is seldom the offspring of an illiterate mind,"

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LETTER V.

THE importance which a cultivated Mind will affix to your character, is another reason that deserves your attention. In the estimation of God, moral principle is more valuable than intellectual strength. He looks with complacency on the feeblest mind, in the most obscure station, which is contending against the evil propensities of its nature, and advancing, though in slow progression, towards a state of infinite purity; but he turns with abhorrence from the most elevated and powerful intellect, when associated with vice. A Dairyman's Daughter secluded from the public eye, within the lonely cottage of her father,

"Alike unknowing, and unknown,"

has awakened, by her repentance, the joy of of that celestial company, whose breasts glow with holy indignation, when they look on that fallen Spirit, whose mental greatness qualifies. him to "reign in hell.”

But in this world, though moral principle is

not rejected, when an estimate is formed of a character, yet there is a superior degree of homage paid to powerful intellect. This is an inversion of the order which is observed amongst the inhabitants of heaven, and should be regarded by us, as one of those fatal mistakes to which we are liable.

To improve the intellectual powers for the sake of the admiration which they may excite, would be to surrender yourself to the entire dominion of an evil passion. The influence of such a passion you should resist, and though it may not be improper to feel pleasure from a conviction that a cultivated understanding receives its appropriate reward, yet in all your efforts of improvement, you should be actuated by the desire of qualifying yourself to promote, in a more eminent degree, the glory of Him, "whose you are and whom you serve.”

The ascendency which you acquire over us, who are the more conspicuous actors in the great drama of life, is so powerful that it is of the greatest importance, that such ascenden cy should be governed by an habitual reference to your responsibility to an invisible tribunal. History tells you that the French and German Philosophers who wished to close the doors of

every temple in Europe, to destroy every vestige of the Christian religion, to eradicate from the human breast every latent feeling of attachment to the lovely name of Jesus, and introduce the reign of atheistical impiety; after corrupting the fountain of knowledge, and securing every avenue to the mind, they despaired of success, till they had secured your influence. When this was obtained, the song of triumph was composed, and the banner of victory was unfurled. Possessing a power that could paralyze or animate, according to their wishes, they commenced the attack. But they failed. The cause which they attacked survived their destruction, and after recording their worthless names on the pages of its own history, like the great Redeemer at his ascension, it has invested its numerous agents with a commission to extend its peaceful conquests through the whole earth.

That cause, still living, lives to demand your influence in its favour, as a reparation for the injury which you intended to inflict.

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And where is the nook of Society over which it does not extend? Where is the person who does not feel its energy? "What is his name and what

is his son's name, if thou canst tell?" Recollect that you carry the mystic leaven which leavens

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