with virtue and intelligence, is the highest perfection of woman. Milton's description of Eve is a beautiful illustration of this truth. It was not her form and features, but the qualities of her mind which shone in them, that adorned her with the perfection of beauty.

"Grace was in all her steps; heaven in her eye;

In all her gestures, dignity and love."

When the judgment has been disciplined by thought, and the taste refined by cultivation, the moral feelings, as a natural consequence, will be rendered more acute, and the moral principles strengthened. Thus will she be fitted as a companion for man, exerting a most benign influence upon his social character, and fitted as a mother to train up and educate her children. Man is not only influenced by woman, but he is ready and willing to be influenced by her.

"O thou, by Heaven ordained to be
Arbitress of man's destiny,

From thy warm heart one tender sigh,
One glance from thine approving eye,

Can raise or bend him at thy will

To virtue's noblest flights, or worst extremes of ill!

"Woman, 'tis thine to cleanse his heart

From every gross, unholy part;

Thine, in domestic solitude,

To win him to be wise and good;

His pattern, guide, and friend to be,

To give him back the heaven he forfeited for thee."

The cultivation of the lighter accomplishments, besides giving a finish to the mind and manners, affords a relaxation and a salutary diversion from the busy cares of life, and to woman with a mind well disciplined, they will create and strengthen a love of home and domestic enjoyments; they will give her unrivalled power over the hearts and characters of those she loves, by enabling her to invest her home with peculiar charms. There is scarcely any thing more lovely than a female possessed of these qualifications, combined with amiable manners as a wife, she will insure the love and happiness of her husband; as a mother, she will set a most praiseworthy example; and as the mistress of a family, she will command the respect and admiration of all who come within the range of her influence.

It is then a scrupulous attention to the moral and intellectual culture which gives to woman the power of rendering herself useful and agreeable in all the relations of life, as daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Woman thus endowed may with propriety be considered as the greatest social gift

to man.

TO AMANDA.

(O

SWEET lady, wilt thou think of me

When music's tones are round thee thrilling,
With a soft-gushing melody,

Thy gentle heart with rapture filling?
O, let my voice, like that loved strain,
Touch in thy heart the chords of feeling,
Like long-hushed music, breathed again
By zephyrs, o'er a wind-harp stealing.

Sweet lady, wilt thou think of me

When Friendship's flowers are round thee wreathing, And Love's delicious flatteries

Within thy ear are softly breathing?

O, let my friendship in the wreath,
Though but a bud amid the flowers,

Its sweetest fragrance round thee breathe,—
'Twill serve to soothe thy weary hours.

Sweet lady, wilt thou think of me?

Ah! should we e'er by fate be parted, Wilt thou embalm my memory,

The memory of the loving-hearted? O, let our spirits then unite,

Each silent eve, in sweet communion, Our thoughts will mingle in their flight,

And Heaven will bless the secret union.

GENTLE WORDS.

A YOUNG rose in the summer time
Is beautiful to me,
And glorious the many stars

That glimmer on the sea;

But gentle words, and loving hearts,
And hands to clasp my own,
Are better than the brightest flowers
Or stars that ever shone !

The sun may warm the grass to life,
The dew the drooping flower,
And eyes grow bright that watch the light
Of autumn's opening hour;
But words that breathe of tenderness,
And hearts we know are true,
Are warmer than the summer time,
And brighter than the dew.

It is not much the world can give,
With all its subtle art,

And gold and gems are not the things
To satisfy the heart;

But O, if those who cluster round
The altar and the hearth,

Have gentle words and loving smiles,

How beautiful is earth!

MARRIAGE.

It is most genial to a soul refined

When love can smile, unblushing, unconcealed; When mutual thoughts, and words, and acts are kind, And inmost hopes and feelings are revealed; When interest, duty, trust, together bind,

And the heart's deep affections are unsealed;
When for each other live the kindred pair:
Here is indeed a picture passing fair!

Hail, happy state! which few have heart to sing,
Because they feel how faintly words express
So kind, and dear, and chaste, and sweet a thing.
As tried affection's lasting tenderness.
Yet stop, my venturous muse, and fold thy wing,
Nor to a shrine so sacred rudely press;

For, marriage, thine is still a silent boast,
"Like beauty unadorned, adorned the most."

A GEM.

THERE'S not a heart, however rude,

But hath some little flower

To brighten up its solitude,
And scent the evening hour;
There's not a heart, however cast
By grief and sorrow down,
But hath some memory of the past,
To love and call its own.