to recall the exact words of

any passage even of the most popular writer. Those, however, who have learnt by heart a good deal of the choicest of our poetry, feel that they have, in doing so, accumulated sources of interest and pleasure for many a weary hour of sickness or of mechanical employment. Indeed, it is so great a pleasure to be able to recall at will the gems of our literature, that I am persuaded no one who thought about the matter would neglect voluntarily such a source of happiness. Poetry, indeed, can be learned in odd minutes,—from an open book while working, or whilst brushing the hair at night, or at many other periods that are too often wasted. “ But I have no memory,” I think I hear some one say. Translated, the phrase usually means, “I do not think it worth while to try to remember;" for

remark we all have sufficient memory for anything that closely concerns our own interests. Undoubtedly, some women naturally blessed with a stronger memory than others; but it is always in our own power to improve it, and if we are conscious of a defi

we may

are

ciency, it should only make us more anxious to strengthen our memory, as we shall surely do, by steadily and gradually increasing our demands upon it. Close and fixed attention to the subject in hand, whilst it remains before them, is perhaps the grand secret of those who distinguish themselves by the power of their memory. It is no effort of GENIUS to be able to report a sermon or a speech without notes; it is simply the effect of giving undivided attention during its delivery. Let the experiment be fairly tried, and I doubt not the result will prove that there is no magic whatever in having a good memory.

But, whilst urging you to store your minds with poetry, sacred and profane, I should cruelly neglect my duty if I failed to counsel you to avail yourself of your youthful days to acquire such a knowledge of the sacred volume as will form a resource when you may be unable to read it for yourself or others. To all of us come periods of sickness and of affliction, when we are unable to read, or perhaps to bear the sound of a voice, when yet it would be an infinite blessing to be able to recall the very words of love and mercy with which our Bible abounds. It is in the season of youth and health that such stores of comfort should be acquired ; and

l certainly no day should be allowed to pass by any young girl, without her having made some addition to her Biblical knowledge. A single verse a day will make nearly four hundred in the year; and by recalling on the Sunday what we have learned in the week, we shall keep up our remembrance of what we have once acquired. This is a sort of learning we shall certainly never regret.

With regard to the books to be selected for private reading, much must depend on our position in life. Those who have few or no active domestic duties, can give, and will probably be expected to give, a larger portion of their time to reading than those differently circumstanced. But it is of the greatest importance that books, whether few or many, should be well chosen, and well read. Books are like people. Some should be minutely studied; some may be just glanced through ; but every one should leave a certain definite impression on the mind. If we go

through a book without learning something from it, we have thrown away our time. How then are we to ascertain that we have read to a purpose? I would earnestly advise every young lady leaving school to resolve to read no work without entering its name, and some particulars respecting it, in a book to be kept for that purpose.

I

say every book, for the most trivial ought to teach us some lesson of morals or manners; to confirm or alter some opinion; or it must be indeed a useless book. I do not suggest an elaborate analysis of everything we read, but merely a resumé, or a sort of catalogue raisonée, of novels, plays, and light reading generally, with extracts of any sentiment or speech which may particularly strike us. But all history should be read with great care, and an abstract, however short, made of it daily. We should avail ourselves of the comparatively leisure years of early womanhood to read the sterling histories of our own and other nations. Whenever we can do so, we should obtain contemporaneous histories, by writers of opposite principles; and, by reading both, we should

avoid the folly of arguing from a one-sided view of facts. This is not merely desirable for the sake of acquiring a correct knowledge of events; it will also prevent our indulging in those bitter feelings and violent invectives which arise from ignorance of what may be said of the other side of a question. For every question, like every coin, has two sides, and much ill feeling would be avoided if all parties would fairly examine them. For instance: our Protestant histories of England speak strongly of the cruelties exercised by Queen Mary on her reformed subjects, but they totally overlook the equal atrocities perpetrated by her sister Elizabeth, on the Roman Catholics. This is not very fair, perhaps, but it is natural. If we only read one of those histories, it is, of course, the one which is on the side of our own faith, and we think we have an excellent proof of the crimes of the opposite party. But when we see both sides of the question, we find out how little real religion had to do with the crimes for which it was made a cloak, and we arrive at such a knowledge of the truth as may not only teach us the history