and depth and length and breadth of a mother's love; but its commanding and winning influence, begun in childhood, will extend through all their after life. Of the pious, virtuous mother, many a son and daughter, as they found themselves by a secret influence, arising from the recollection of her precepts and examples -of her prayers and tears-restrained from vice, and impelled to virtue, have been led to exclaim,

If ought of goodness or of grace

Be mine, hers be the glory;
She led me on in wisdom's path,

And set the light before me.

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CHAPTER XIV.

TRIALS OF WOMAN-AND HER SOLACE.

A woman's virtues must be genuine. They are to expand, not in the sunshine, but in the shade; they need some vital principle to supply the place of foreign excitement. Religion is this influence, this germ of every grace, this sap which finds its way through every fibre, and emits the fairest blossoms, without the aid of artificial heat.

Sandford.

IT has been remarked by an observing and wise statesman, that "most women are either formed in the school, or tried by the test, of adversity." In this class stood the devout Hannah, of old. She was reproached and persecuted by her haughty rival, she was the subject of remonstrance with her husband, and when she went to the temple of God, to seek peace in her troubles, because she spake not aloud, but only her lips moved, she was rudely charged with the vice of intemperance. To this allegation she replied, "I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord." These words remind us of the trials of woman; and they point us, at the same time, to her only and effectual Solace in trouble.

Human life contains much to try the spirits of all. There are many afflictions, which man must share

alike with woman. But, superadded to these, are sources and occasions of sorrow peculiar to her sex. There are none who do not sometimes descend the vale of tears. The cup of bitterness is placed in the hands of all. But woman is constrained to drink it sometimes to the very dregs.

To man, Providence has assigned severe bodily tasks, but he has given him likewise a vigorous frame. It is the lot of the other sex, notwithstanding their infirmities, to sustain more physical sufferings than come usually upon him. Her nervous organization is more delicate, and her sensibility to pain must, therefore, be greater. We might cite the scenes of the sick chamber, and hours, in which she needs a martyr's fortitude. But more than this: in those sufferings incident to her sex, and almost universally experienced, she has trials of her firmness, energy, and patience, from which man is constitutionally exempt. How many secret tears are wiped from her cheek; what untold anguish does she sometimes endure? And none the lighter is this load, from her being excluded, by her silence, from the supports of sympathy. On whom shall she cast her cares? If there are motives which forbid the disclosure to human ears, of the sword that is cutting the bare fibres of her frame and piercing her heart, to whom shall she go for strength?

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"To feel and to suffer," says one of this sex, are synonymous with woman." This may exaggerate

the strict truth, and yet it is doubtless substantially correct. Some of the noblest virtues of her sex imply great sensibility. What gives fortitude, in her, such illustrious merit? Her extreme susceptibility of suffering. The blow, from which the gnarled oak will rebound, shall crush the frail ivy. Why is patience a prime grace in woman? Not only because she has such burdens laid on her spirit, but still more for the reason that she feels so keenly their weight. Whence is it that tenderness and confidence, qualities which, in their excess, unfit man to grapple with this rough world, and are therefore censured in him as effeminate, are her ornaments and praise? Her native sensibility qualifies her for these and their kindred virtues, and without them, we deem her an apostate from her sex.

It would not be too strong an expression to say, that woman lives in the realm of feeling. Her life is not that outward thing which it so often appears. Beneath a calm exterior, she bears sometimes a heart full of disquietude and sorrow. Hence, without question, we sometimes regard her as bowed and overwhelmed by some worldly casualty, who has in her soul a power of endurance that gives her angelic strength.

We hear it affirmed that woman is naturally buoyant of spirit; that she is disposed to enjoy life, and look on its brighter aspects. Let this be conceded for truth; what does it shew in relation to her sufferings?

That poet, who wrote from his own delicate soul, tells | us that

Chords, which vibrate sweetest pleasure,

Thrill the deepest notes of woe.

So is it, that she who feels most keenly each pulsation of joy, is tenderly alive to the corresponding tones of sorrow. The obtuse may receive less positive joy from the happy events that befal them; but let us not forget that they suffer also less than the acutely sensitive. We admire the Corinthian column. Its lightness and grace are replete with beauty. Yet, in the storms of this rude world, how often does it prove a fragile thing. The gayest smile on the fairest face, preaches fearful susceptibilities of disappointment and grief.

Woman is tried, moreover, by her natural imaginativeness. The superior force and activity of this trait in her character, can hardly be denied. She anticipates in the day of health and happiness, more coming good, than man dares expect. Fancy creates round her a world of bliss.

Evermore her eye

Is busy in the distance, shaping things
That make her heart beat quick.

Or do gloom and despondency come over her; imagination, not content with the cloud of to-day, summons from the deep dark piles, that are charged with storm and tempest. Let her once begin, with high credit, to borrow trouble, and the future shall be