offspring of speculation, but the warm and vigorous dictate of the heart.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN A FATHER AND HIS SON, OR ASPIRATIONS AFTER GOD NATURAL TO THE YOUNG.

A father was walking with his little son in the fields, and they beheld a ewe with its young one sporting and frisking about its mother. The boy rejoiced at the lovely sight, and after having looked for a long time at the sheep and the lamb, he said, The lamb goes by its mother like a child, but where is its father?'

The lamb does not know a father, and will never know one,' was the reply.

The boy asked, 'Then will it always stay with its mother?'

The father answered, Only so long as it needs her milk for its support. As soon as it is able to eat grass it leaves its mother, and foregts her, and bends its head to the ground.' 'But what do the children of men?' asked the boy.

Behold,' said the father, when you were born you lay in your mother's lap, and were fed at her breast, and you slumbered without consciousness for some months. Then your countenance brightened; you looked up from her bosom to smile in her face. This the lamb cannot do. A few months more and you

knew your mother from all others; you uttered half-formed sounds, and stretched out your hands towards her. This also the lamb cannot do.

Again some months elapsed, and you knew your father, and turned your little face from your mother towards him, and you said, "Father and mother!" Behold this the lamb cannot do. It bends its head to the ground; but you do not alone look upon the earth: you can lift your eyes to heaven.

'But behold,' continued the father, the time shall be when this shall not content thee; thou wilt demand to look through the heavens, seeking to find the countenance of one that dwelleth above, and thou shalt find it. Then will a third word be born in thy heart-the name of God, the word of life.'

ON THE SOCIAL AFFECTIONS.*

In the intercourse of social life, it is by little acts of watchful kindness, recurring daily and hourly-and opportunities of doing kindnesses, if sought for, are for ever starting up-it is by words, by tones, by gestures, by looks, that affection is won and preserved.

Man, like the generous vine, supported lives:

The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own axis as the planets run,

Yet make at once their circle round the sun,

* A series of lessons connected with this subject will be found in the Second Book of this series- Of the Duties men owe to one another.'

So two consistent motions act the soul;
And one regards itself, and one the whole.
Thus God and Nature link'd the general frame,
And bade self-love and social be the same.

Man not only possesses an intellectual, moral, and religious nature, but also a social nature. He was made for society. Just as his religious affections have God for their object, and yield delight and satisfaction to the soul, so his social affections have mankind for their object, and in their exercise impart that pleasure and joy which in their nature they are calculated to produce.

The social affections may be variously named, according to the particular objects by which they are elicited. Thus we have connubial affection, or that love which exists between the sexes relating to marriage; conjugal affection, or the love existing between husband and wife; parental affection, or the love of parents for their children; filial affection, or the love of children for their parents; fraternal affection, or brotherly love; affection for neighbours and friends; affection for one's country, which goes by the name of patriotism; and affection for mankind generally, or philanthropic love.

The cultivation of the social affections is a duty incumbent on all, as it respects the happiness of individuals and society, and its importance, especially in reference to the young, cannot be too strongly insisted on. Hence the vast

use that may be made of domestic training with this object in view. For whatever may be the efficiency of schools, the examples set in our homes must always be of much greater influence in cherishing and guiding the social affections of our future men and women. The home is the crystal of society-the nucleus of national character and from that source, be it pure or tainted, issue the habits, principles, and maxims which govern public as well as private life. The nation comes from the nursery. Public opinion and social affections for the most part receive their first impulses at home, and the best philanthropy comes from the fireside.

To love the little platoon we belong to in society,' says Burke, is the germ of all public affections.'

From this little central spot the human sympathies may extend in an ever-widening circle until the world is embraced; for though true philanthropy, like charity, begins at home, assuredly it does not end there.

There is so little to redeem the dry mass of follies and errors from which the materials of this life are composed, that anything to love or to reverence becomes as it were the Sabbath for the mind, and is productive of

Those fond sensations, those enchanting dreams,
Which cheat a toiling world from day to day,
And form the whole of happiness they know.

The good effects of the social affections on general virtue and happiness admit of no dispute. Let us consider their effects on the happiness of him who possesses them, and the various pleasures to which they give him access. If he is master of riches or influence, they afford him the means of increasing his own enjoyment by relieving the wants or increasing the comforts of others. If he commands not these advantages, yet all the comforts which he sees in the possession of the deserving become in some sort his, by his rejoicing in the good which they enjoy. Numberless occasions open to him of indulging his favourite taste by conveying satisfaction to others. Often it is in his power in one way or other to soothe the afflicted heart, to carry some consolation into the house of woe. In the scenes of ordinary life, in the domestic and social intercourses of men, the cordiality of his affections cheers and gladdens him. Every appearance, every description of innocent happiness is enjoyed by him. Every native expression of kindness and affection among others is felt by him, even though he be not the object of it. In a circle of friends enjoying one another he is as happy as the happiest. In a word, he lives in a different sort of world from what the selfish man inhabits. He possesses a new sense that enables him to behold objects which the selfish cannot see. At the same time his enjoyments