as are consistent with his means. You have consented to be the partner of his life, and you have no more right to squander his money than his business partner has. It is your duty to husband it; and happy are you if your companion has such confidence in your faithfulness to him and his interest, that he puts money into your hand always willingly, believing that it will be parted with judiciously, and with discreet and conscientious regard to his means and abilities. If your husband has no confidence in your economy and discretion, and consequently stints you, and absolutely feels obliged to place you in the position of a favorite dependent and pensioner-a plaything or a housekeeper for whom he has got to pay-you are not happy by any means.

You can do very much in your character of helpmate to lighten your husband's cares, and relieve him from anxieties. If he finds you looking closely after his interests, buying economically the food for his table, and never wastefully sacrificing your old dresses in consequence of your thirst for new, always counting the cost of every object which you may desire, you relieve his mind from a load of care which no man can carry without embarrassinent. A man who feels that there is in his own house a leak which will absorb all he may earn, be that little or much, and that he has got to suffer it, and suffer from it, or institute restrictions that will probably make him appear mean in the eyes of his wife (wasteful wives are very apt to

have mean husbands), the great stimulus and encouragement of his industry are taken away from

him.

The full appreciation of your character, as your husband's helpmate, depends upon the thorough identification of yourself with him. Of this I have talked before, and call it up again for the purpose of showing you that there is absolutely no aspect of your relation to him which can be considered legitimate and complete that does not involve his identification. It is an equal thing. You are interested in your husband's expenditures; and he is interested in yours. You have cast in your lot together your whole lot; and he has no more right to expend his money in such a way as to embarrass you, and deprive you of what you need, than you have to squander the means which he places at your disposal. It is a partnership concern, and if you succeed in managing your department of it in such a way as to secure your husband's confidence, fairly considering the cost of every cent to him, he will feel that he is appreciated, honored, and loved. Very likely he will understand this better than tasteful comforts and tender demonstrations of a lighter nature-demonstrations that involve no self-denial.

LETTER IV.

The Rearing of Children.

Once thou wert hidden in her painful side,

A boon unknown, a mystery and a fear;

Strange pangs she bore for thee; but HE whose name

Is everlasting LOVE hath healed her pain;

And paid her suffering hours with living joy.

HENRY ALFORD.

Hail, wedded Love! mysterious law; true source

Of human offspring!

MILTON.

MY theory of life is that it is a school of men

tal and moral development-that God intended that each soul should pass under a series of influences, whose office it should be to evolve all its faculties, and soften and harmonize them. To this end, he has laid upon each a sweet necessity to adopt the ordinances he has contrived. When I speak of necessity, I do not mean compulsion, save in a limited sense-compulsion entirely consistent with individual election. Thus I believe that there is a very material portion of mental and moral development which cannot be achieved out of

the marriage relation; and, to bring men and women into this relation, He has given them the sentiment of love, and the desire of mutual personal possession. This sentiment and desire are made so strong that they may hardly be resisted, so that all shall choose to be joined in conjugal relations. Thus the strong are softened by the weak, and the weak are invigorated by the strong; and the influences of men and women upon each other become the most powerful agencies for their mutual harmonious growth. But this is not all. When a pair have become united in wedlock, there arises in each healthy heart a desire for offspring. Nothing is more natural than this desire, and nothing more imperative. Its germ is seen far back in childhood. The boy's love of pets is but a manifestation of the primary outreachings of this desire, which fasten at first upon the only possible objects; and there probably never lived a little girl that did not love her doll beyond all other playthings. She takes it first, and retains it the longest of any.

This brings me to the subject of children, as legitimately something to be talked about in these letters. The having and the rearing of children form one of God's ordinances for making you what you should be what He wishes you to be. They are as necessary to you as you are to them. You can no more reach the highest and most harmonious development of which you are capable without children, than you can develop a muscle without

exercise. Without them, one of the most beautiful regions of your nature must forever remain without appropriate and direct culture. The offices of children in the culture of their parents are manifold. In the first place, they are a conservative and regulating force. A pair living together without children naturally become selfish. A pair unwatched by innocent eyes are often thrown off their guard in their language towards, and treatment of each other. They lose one great stimulus to industry, and do not possess that which is, perhaps, the strongest bond, under all the circumstances of life, which can bind husband and wife together. There can be no true development of heart and mind where pure selfishness is the predominant principle; so God ordains that in each house there shall be little ones, more precious than all else, who shall engage the sympathy, tax the efforts, and absorb the love of those who sustain to them the relation of parents. The law is irreversible that our best individual progress in mental and moral good shall be attained by efforts devoted to others; and in children, each parent finds the nearest objects of such devotion. And there is, perhaps, nothing which so tends to soften the heart, to develop the kindlier affections, and to unlock and chasten the sympathies of men, and women, as the children which sit around their table, and frolic upon their knees.

When I see a man stop in the streets to comfort some weeping child, or to get a kiss from a pair of