as

such as

ever be a proper substitute for a solid joint; and the best novels that ever were written would not be suitable as the only, or even the principal study of a young girl. Novels should be kept a relaxation from study, or a

source of amusement during temporary indisposition. And nothing should induce a daughter to read

are not sanctioned by her mother. Many are indeed excellent and unobjectionable as amusements; and, in the present day especially, we have several writers whose works will at once delight and instruct the reader. But how are you to choose these books, supposing that mamma leaves you in such matters to your own guidance. Let one book by any given author afford us, on analysis, a good lesson, and we may fairly believe that another hy the same writer will not be objectionable. Take “Emelia Wyndham as an example. The result of this novel on the mind will probably be the conviction that happiness will always, sooner later, result from a steady adherence to the path of duty, however much that path may at first seem beset with thorns. Well, this lesson, laid to

or

heart and acted out, will prove valuable to us in many a difficulty; and if we have learnt it from reading a novel, that novel was neither read nor written in vain.

The works of the author of “ Olive” (Miss Mulock) are all excellent; and “Lydia,” a WOMAN's book, by Mrs. Newton Crosland, is a book every woman should read. Nor must I forget the “ Lives of Memorable Women," by the same truly clear-headed and warm-hearted authoress. In elevating our sex in our own eyes, this work will stimulate us to emulate the virtues of those who have done so much honour to it.

To give a list of works to be read would be clearly impossible, within the limits of a book like this. I can only advise in general terms—

1st. To avoid all “Compendiums," “ Selections,” “Abstracts,” and “Beauties," as you would avoid the plague or the cholera. They form a royal road to ignorance and self-conceit instead of knowledge.

2nd. Having begun a book, read it through. Master its contents, and do not be satisfied without having learnt something from the perusal.

3rd. Give your whole attention to every work while you are engaged on it.

Follow out these rules, and you will read to some purpose.

Of course, whilst it is optional to read many works, there are some of which it would be disgraceful to be ignorant. Such are the

Historians, bards, and orators sublime,

Land-marks eternal on the shores of Time, whose works are to be found in every library. That grand old Greek, Plutarch, is perhaps the most profoundly interesting of all historians (for his biographies clearly belong to history); then Rollin, Gibbon, Hume and Smollett, Lingard, and Robertson. Not to know these would be indeed to argue yourselves unknown. And who would acknowledge that they were ignorant of Shakspere? (Bowdler's edition is the best) Who has not read the romances and poems of Scott, or Miss Edgeworth's admirable tales, or enjoyed the immortal “ Vicar of Wakefield,” or sighed over “Ras

?" But few works ever gave me

more intense pleasure than “Boswell's Life of Johnson," a work which not only shows us the great lexicographer as he was, with all his greatness and all his failings, but also introduces us to the intimate acquaintance of all the great men of that period. Truly there were giants on the earth in those days! Another favourite book of mine, I remember, was Adam Clark's “ Lives of the Wesley Family.” It is years since I saw it, but I can still recall the interest with which I read the histories of the members of that remarkable family. The “Spectator," too, was in my girlish days a source of great enjoyment. Cowper's letters and poems were also very great favourites ; and the old poets, Spencer especially, I delighted in. I say nothing of Milton, or rather of “Paradise Lost,” for I suspect I am not the only person who read it as a duty. Passages there are which must delight every one; but, as a whole, it is probably "caviar to the general," as it was to me. It is a study for maturer years than those I am supposing my friends to possess.

So intimately are reading and composition

connected, that they can hardly be considered distinctly. In the course of my observations on books, I have suggested plans which must materially improve the mental powers, and will, as that of expressing thought; but a few words more may not be misplaced.

The most general exercise of a young lady's pen is in her correspondence with friends, or with absent members of her family. On leaving the schoolroom this correspondence begins, not unfrequently with requests from her immediate associates, and perhaps with others with whom she has had really no intimacy, with “You'll write to me, won't you, there's a dear?” or “Now, mind; I shall expect to hear from you every week; be sure you write to me!” and a young girl becomes involved in an extensive correspondence before she knows the value of the time she is throwing away; for it is, in most cases, utterly thrown away. Few schoolgirl friendships endure for any long period after the parties are separated; nor is it desirable that they should, unless they have some more solid foundation than mere propinquity. Of