Working-women, in addressing you, I must speak the truth, however startling and invidious it may appear. It is " more in sorrow than in anger" that I express my conviction of the truth of the charge preferred against us as a class, that, after full allowance made for our condition in life, and the impediments which lie in our way to the acquirement of knowledge and the possession of literary tastes and abilities, we have hitherto sadly misused our opportunities, and are but miserable laggards in the march of mind. We must confess that we have fallen immeasurably short of the standard attained by the females of the upper and middle classes, who, by a zealous improvement of their mental resources-by reading, thinking, and composing-have strengthened and embellished their minds, while they have adorned and enriched the literature of their country.

But while I would say, perish the thought which would induce us to believe that we are less liberally endowed by the Author of our existence with the elements of thought, the gifts of mind, and all the tender, pure, and deep sensibilities which are indigenous to the soil of woman's heart, still I appeal to your own candour, and to all who are close and earnest observers, if they do not find the charge proved against us by the spirit and matter of our conversational intercourse with men and with each other, and, what is more important still, in the manner and matter of our conversation and demeanour in the midst of our children and families.

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Working-men, a word with you. Lay not the flattering unction to your souls" that you are guilt

less in this matter. I ask you, in the name of the women of your class, if you have not made it apparent, both in your spirit and manner on all occassions of social intercourse, that you prefer matter to mind in almost every period, relation, and situation of life in which you may be more intimately associated with our sex. With a few exceptions, is it not true that in early manhood the qualities you admire, and the attractions which are most powerful in leading you to form particular attachments, consist chiefly in dress, complexion, and figure, with a piquant manner of uttering "bald, disjointed chat," silly repartees, and pretty nothings, while a quiet, unobtrusive girl, who loves reading, and possesses a well-informed mind and a heart rich in all the sweetest, truest sympathies of woman, will often find herself neglected and even avoided as a bore in company, when you can find "metal more attractive?" It follows as a matter of course, that young women, naturally wishing to stand well in your good graces, with a view to their future settlement in life, will be more anxious to possess and show off the attractions most likely to insure your preference, than to cultivate and "covet earnestly the best gifts"-those gifts of the mind which in your estimation, if we may judge from appearances, are only "customs more honoured in the breach than in the observance."

The sequel of all this is, that the young woman is made a wife, and Time, which works wonders, will supply you with a test to prove if you have indeed chosen a helpmeet for you and a mother for your children; one who will make it her chief care "to rear

the tender thought," and watch over their souls as one that must give an account. But "men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ;" and shall the mother who never felt the necessity, never made the attempt by self-culture to improve her mind or enrich her heart by cultivating the Christian virtues and womanly charities, shall she, or can she, feel what every good mother must feel, that, while she is lovingly ministering to all the bodily requirements of her children, she is but keeping in repair, cleaning and polishing, the beautiful casket which holds within a spiritual jewel of more inestimable value than the gains of the whole world?

Working-men, I trust you will be candid enough to draw a true inference, and form a just conclusion on this subject. If you are really in earnest in your endeavours to advance your order, and if you really believe that there is "a good time coming," then be assured, and experience will prove the assertion, that you must feel the necessity, ay, and act promptly upon it, of including the females of your class, and more particularly the young, the future mothers of future men, in every movement for furthering the intellectual advancement of your order. If you fail in this, there will be just cause for fear that the time coming will not be productive of such an amount of real and permanent "good" as you at present seem to anticipate.

I have somewhere read an anecdote of Napoleon I., that one day, in conversation with Madame de Stael, he abruptly proposed to her this question: "Pray, Madame, what do you suppose to be the most effectual agent for

the production of good men and good subjects?" "Good mothers," was her brief but most empathic response-a response which my heart echoed with a throb of pride and pleasure, when I found that this gifted lady must have entertained the same idea, felt the same conviction, and held the same opinion, nay, had expressed herself in the same words which I would have chosen to utter my sentiments on this subject; for I believe that all who are truly interested in the welfare of their own country in particular, and of human nature in general-all who are earnestly inquiring after the best methods for compassing the elevation of the working and lower classes of society-will, after a searching and candid investigation, and a patient tracing of effects to their existing causes, feel a strong conviction while witnessing the vast, I had almost said the hopeless, aggregate of juvenile ignorance, depravity, crime, and wretchedness, that a frightful amount of it is consequent on the want of good mothers, and the presence and influence of the ignorant and the vicious, whether in our crowded cities, large manufacturing towns, populous mining districts, or extensive public works.

THE MOTHER'S MISSION.

AMONGST the many powerful agencies at work in society, there is one whose paramount importance, as its effects upon the whole framework of society are constantly developed, make it a subject of deep and serious interest to every reflecting mind. It strikes deep and spreads wide; and being the first to entwine itself with the fibres of the human heart, its influence is mighty and universal, and, where rightly directed and applied, is the most efficient of human agencies to mould the youthful mind into a form of spiritual beauty, and guide the tender feet of childhood into the paths of wisdom and peace; and this powerful but gentle influence is exercised by her who not only bears the name, but is in deed and in truth a mother. But when this power is vested in those who through ignorance, evil example, or gross and criminal neglect betray the sacred charge entrusted to them by God and nature, such mothers have only assisted in launching the frail bark of the young immortal upon the stormy ocean of life, and left it to perish amidst the rocks and breakers. Yet this influence, involving such pernicious and fearful consequences, is often weilded by one who bears the name, but possesses none of the essential attributes of that sacred character. Let it not be supposed that

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