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stances render it the more necessary to have method in settling the various things with which the space is occupied. "A place for every thing, and every thing in its place," should be the motto in every well regulated family. All must have observed how much the want of management leads to the loss of time, and how much more of what is really useful may, in consequence, be accomplished by some persons than by others. "Time is our estate; it is our most valuable property. If we lose it or waste it, we can never-never purchase it back again." Punctuality must also find a place in the list of virtues which should be practised by the good housewife. It is the child of order and method, and cannot exist where they are wanting. It is generally found that those who have the least to do are the least punctual. But, perhaps, it may be said, that if each hour has its allotted and full occupation, any trivial circumstance may produce delay, and thus cause every thing to be what is called behindhand. All this is, however, to be avoided, if we allow ourselves in the beginning of the day a few minutes before-hand. But what makes punctuality of still more necessary observance is, that the want of it may be productive of serious inconvenience and waste of time to others as well as to ourselves.

Order, regularity, and punctuality are, then, the greatest economists of time, and, therefore, the observance of them cannot be too rigidly practised.

Cleanliness is, however, still more important to the comfort of a dwelling, and it is more especially requisite in the preparation of wholesome food. Whoever has once known the real satisfaction arising from this domestic virtue would never relapse into dirty habits.

The habits which are acquired when we are young, are difficult to be eradicated, even though we may have a sincere desire of exchanging them for better. Order, neatness, and cleanliness, should then be practised by the mother of a family, if it were for no other reason than by example to form her children to habits which will be so essentially useful to them in after-life. A mother, by enforcing on her daughters the necessity of industrious regularity, endows them with a property which will prove

most valuable to them in their future destination. The woman whose time is her capital, and who does not waste it by negligence, forgetfulness, or irregularity in her work, may be considered to be twice as rich as she who has to run for every thing just at the moment it is required. If engaged as a household servant, how much is her value enhanced by habits which gain her the esteem and goodwill of her employers, and by which she makes friends to herself through life. Good management may, in a degree, be obtained by all who will take a little trouble for its acquirement; the humblest situation-the most untaught intellect—are not excluded from its advantages. Anon.

SUCCESSIVE STATES OF HUMAN LIFE.

IN our seasons we have the grateful succession of the Spring, the Summer, and the Autumn: in our vegetation, the new leaf, the beauteous flower, and the nutritious fruit. These correspond with contemporaneous atmospherical changes of our system, and are followed by that seeming death of nature, which frosty and chilling Winter brings on.

The insect and reptile world exhibit similar changes. The Spring recalls or hatches their tribes into life and feeling, in a creeping state. They have their summer day of playful gaiety, varying in its duration, and enjoy existence in a winged form: their autumn is their time of depositing their eggs: and from that they depart into death or torpor. These four states of all that have vital being, growth, maturity, decline, and death,—and these annual successions of the seasons, which are so much associated with the life, produce, and suspension of vegetative nature,-have been made the characteristics of our terrestrial system.

In the human race, an analogous series of changes and states take place, with such striking moral and intellectual results, as to excite our admiration at the kindness of our Creator, for having formed his human nature on a plan of such wise benevolence. By this He has appointed that every human being should have a season of childhood; another of youth; a third of full maturity,

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with its parental produce; and a following period of decline and death, to pass into another state of existence elsewhere.

These laws are attached to all who are permitted to pass through the regular course of human life; though its Giver has reserved to Himself the resistless right of calling each of us away at whatever part of it He shall think proper, without completing the full progress of these successive states.-Sharon Turner.

THE NIGHT WATCH.

UNLESS the Lord the city keep,
Vain is the watchman's care;
If his protecting eye should sleep,
Our lot is dark despair!

But He sleeps not! His eye, His ear,

(How bless'd such an appeal,) Are open to the prayer, the tear,

Of all His creatures still.

The flower that owes to Him its birth,
He clothes in pure array;

And not a sparrow falls to earth
Ere its appointed day!

Can I, then, doubt His will or power
To guard me through the night?
To spread o'er my unconscious hour,
Visions of life and light?

Ah, no!-our Heavenly Watchman still
Stands near my humble bed;

The arm of His protecting will
Is thrown around my head.

It still will guard, though foes surround,
Though dangers hover near;

The broken reed His mercy bound,
His pitying voice will cheer.

In every place, at every hour,
Be this my sacred charm!
And, kept by His unsleeping power

I cannot suffer harm.-Mrs. Tonge.

ADVICE TO THOSE ATTENDING ON SICKNESS.

THOSE Who attend the sick are above all things interested in having the sick-room kept clean. Idle nurses, who allow the sick person to remain with linen unchanged for several days, or with dirty sheets; or who take no pains to expose the blankets to the fresh air; or who allow offensive matters to remain about the bed; or who neglect to open the doors and windows; are fond of securing themselves, as they foolishly imagine, from all danger, by smelling salts or vinegar, or by camphor, or by keeping lozenges of some kind or other in the mouth; all which things are useless, whilst at the same time they render the air about a patient very disagreeable, and will conceal such bad smells as ought to be attended to and removed.

Nothing is more abominable than to see a nurse, careless of the continual attentions required by a person suffering all the torment of a fever, thinking only of her own eating and drinking, and doing both to excess; sometimes, indeed, excited by spirits or wine, of which there is always too unrestrained a use in a sick house, and then disturbing and fidgeting the patient about a hundred things which ought to have been done at another time.

The first thing, then, for those to do who are much about the sick, is to see that the room is clean that there is no collection of clothes or rubbish under the bed-that the bed-linen and the patient's dress are not neglected,— and that there is no bad smell in the room.

The nurses and attendants are obliged to be a great part of their time with the sick; this is attended with less danger to them than might be supposed, provided they keep the room and patient clean; live pretty well, without intemperance; are cheerful and active, and except when actually attending to the sick person, place themselves near the window or door, so as not to be exposed to the continued stream of air from the patient. It is also quite certain that the nurses and attendants become accustomed to the atmosphere of a sick-room, and are not so liable as others to become affected with infectious disorders.

Those who are not in actual attendance on the sick, but who go to see them as friends and neighbours, should not make lony visits to them; nor sit too near them; nor inhale their breath;-if there is any kind of bad smell in the room, they should not go in until it has disappeared ;— they may shake hands with the patients, but should not kiss their lips. If a window is open, they should sit between it and the patient's bed; if not, between the door and the bed, that the air may be carried from them towards the patient, rather than from the patient towards them.

No clothes that have been used by the patient should be put into drawers with the clothes of other persons: all the dirty linen, sheets, &c., when taken out of the room, should be put at once into water out of the house, and then hung up in a free current of air.

The best thing that can be done by way of fumigation is to use the chloride of lime, and its use is very simple and easy. It may be procured at any druggist's shop, and is not very dear; a pound of it, which may be had for sixpence, is sufficient for a gallon of water, in which it should be dissolved. Some of this water should be sprinkled over the bed-room twice a day or oftener; not in great quantity at a time, because it is too stimulating to the lungs of a sick person. The stairs and passages may be sprinkled also. The vessel or jar in which the chloride of lime in water is kept, should have a cover.

In case of death all the bed-clothes and linen worn by the patient, should be purified in the same way, then put in water, and dried in the open air: the bedstead and bedroom, and all the articles of furniture, should be scoured, and the room thoroughly ventilated, and if possible, whitewashed before being slept in again. The drying of the room will be best promoted by keeping a fire in it, and having the windows and door open.

It must, however, never be forgotten that neither the chloride of lime, nor any kind of fumigation whatever, will destroy infection, or make it safe to go near persons sick of any description of fever, without fresh air and constant cleanliness. But if all these things are observed, the danger of fevers spreading would become very small indeed. The Physician.

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