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PREFACE,

ADDRESSED TO MOTHERS.

You are sitting with your child in your arms. So am I. And I have never been as happy before. Have you? How this new affection seems to spread a soft, fresh green over the soul. Does not the whole heart blossom thick with plants of hope, sparkling with perpetual dew-drops? What a loss, had we passed through the world, without tasting this purest, most exquisite fount of love.

Now, how shall we bring up this babe, which Heaven bath lent us? Great need have we to repeat the question of the father of Samson, to the angel who announced his birth, "how shall we order the child?" Surely, we shall unite with fervour in his supplication to the Father of Angels, "teach us what we shall do unto the child?"

Are you a novice? I am one also. Let us learn together. The culture of young minds, in their more advanced stages, has indeed been entrusted to me, and I have loved the office. But never before, have I been so blest, as to nurture the infant, when as a