No sooner was the scourge removed, than the longing daughter of Israel returned once more, to “dwell among her own people:" but rapine and violence had possessed the land, and another hand had seized upon the widow's inheritance. In this emergency, how beautiful, how uncommon, are the traits manifested to us, of the Shunamite's character. She does not accuse Elisha as the author of her calamity, in having advised her to abandon her estate; neither does she, presuming upon past favors, go to seek redress at his hands. With that delicate tact for which she is throughout so remarkable, she makes a proper distinction between those supernatural bestowments of which Elisha was the delegated channel, and the requirements of justice to be looked for at the hands of those who are appointed to be "ministers of God to men for good." She goes to the king, not in the character of the great woman of Shunem, the friend and entertainer of Elisha, protected and favoured by him, but as any other widow in Israel might have done, who had been similarly dispossessed; taking in her hand the legal heir, to manifest and confirm her claim. And God who loves the single mind, and who holds the hearts of kings in his keeping, so turned the power of her appeal, as that her claim was at once recognized and conceded. "And the king talked with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God saying, Tell me I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king, how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king, for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My Lord O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha

restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain office; Saying, restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field, since the day that she left the land, even until now."

Fair Shunamite, in thee we behold the triumph of faith, when, taking in thine arms "thy dead restored to life again," thou gavest witness that thou didst account God able to raise even from the dead. Hope triumphs in thy mien, when, upon the prophet's bed, the corpse of thy son is laid with calmness; and thou thyself hast shut the door upon that sight, and art speeding onward to the Mount of prayer and vision. Hope goes with thee also, to sojourn in the heathen's land, and gilds thy return to a heritage laid desolate: kneels with thee at the feet of justice, and is not made ashamed, when by a leper's wondrous tale thy suit is providentially enforced. Charity claims thee for her own, and points to thy pure benevolence, thy never-ceasing work and labour of love: to thy sweet home affections: to thy unworldly aims: to thy serene endurance of good and ill. Fair Shunamite! if there were indeed among the hid "seven thousand," many daughters like thee, we marvel not that still the Lord was gracious unto Israel; that still the day of desolation was prolonged. "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of honest and good report," fair Shunamite! we read the

Divine record of them all in thee!

LYDIA.

THOUGHTS

FOR PARENTS AND INSTRUCTORS,

ON FEMALE EDUCATION.

IN the education of boys it is generally admitted that effects the most beneficial to the mind are usually produced by the study of such branches of learning as have a tendency to fix the attention, so as to render it impossible for the pupil not to think. The mental labour which these studies require is a good training for the mind, to whatever subjects it may afterwards be turned. The attention and close reasoning which are necessary, materially assist in developing and strengthening the intellectual faculties, and this mental discipline is considered to be the most direct way of producing correctness of judgment and accuracy of perception, not merely as regards learning, but in all which the individual carries with him into the ordinary affairs of life. The intelligent tutor knows that mental exercise will necessarily produce mental cultivation, and he directs his pupil to such studies as not only demand the exercise of the memory, but which also call into play the attention and judgment; feeling assured that he is thus laying a solid foundation for whatever superstructure may be afterwards raised. Why, may we be permitted to ask, is this forgotten in the education of girls? Why are the studies of our female youth

allowed to assume a tone and character so light and trifling as to render mental improvement almost, if not altogether, out of the question? It is sometimes our aim to impart instruction by means of amusement, and overlooking the advantages of that selfcontroul and command of attention which are acquired by mental labour, we eagerly avail ourselves of some of those multiplied helps,-those teachingin-play systems, which are so profusely offered, to facilitate the acquirement of knowledge; forgetting that acquisitions in learning which really deserve the name are not to be obtained without pains and application; and that a certain degree of patience and perseverance is necessary to the attainment even of a mere mechanical aptitude. I have somewhere seen it remarked, and whenever I meet with thoughts more valuable than my own I am glad to borrow them, although I cannot always acknowledge the obligation, that if a man have a landed estate, he can procure labourers and have it cultivated for him, and while lolling in his arm-chair, may have the rich produce brought to his feet: but the cultivation of the mind must be done by self. Whatever riches such a person may gain from others, he will grow rich in knowledge only as he labours at it himself. It is undoubtedly advantageous occasionally to relieve the tedium of the uninterrupted study of books by bringing forward subjects calculated to amuse, as well as to instruct; for by so doing spirit and variety may be given to those hours which, if we are to believe what we are told by some writers, are unhappily too often considered both by the teacher and the taught as hours of dull and heartless toil. We all can remember the atmosphere of the

school-room,' says a recent authoress, 'so uncongenial to the fresh and buoyant spirits of youth-the clatter of slates, the dull point of the pencil, and the white cloud where the wrong figure, the figure that would prove the incorrectness of the whole, had so often been rubbed out. To say nothing of the morning lessons before the dust from the desks and the floor had been put in motion; we all can remember the afternoon sensations with which we took our places, perhaps, between companions the most unloved by us of any in the school; and how, while the summer's sun was shining in through the high windows, we pored with aching head over some dry dull words that would not transmit themselves to the tablet of our memories, though repeated with indefatigable industry, repeated until they seemed to have no identity, no distinctness, but were mingled with the universal hum and buzz of the close heated room; where the heart, if it did not forget itself to stone, at least forgot itself to sleep, and lost all power of feeling any thing but weariness and occasional pining for relief. Class after class was then called up from this hot-bed of intellect. The tones of the teacher's voice, though not always the most musical, might easily have been pricked down in notes, they were so universal in their cadences of interrogation, rejection, and reproof. These blending with the slow, dull answers of the scholars, and occasionally the quick guess of one ambitious to attain the highest place, all mingled with the general monotony, and increased the stupor that weighed down every eye, and deadened every pulse. That weariness is the prevalent sensation both with the teachers and the taught, is a fact that few will attempt to deny.' Is