Page:Letters to Mothers (1839).djvu/110

 them to duty and to God. Take in your arms, their favourite kitten, and pointing out its graceful proportions, teach a lesson of kindness. While the dog sleeps at the feet of his master, tell of the virtues of his race, of their fidelity and enduring gratitude, and bespeak respect for the good qualities of the inferior creation. Teach their little feet to turn aside from the worm, and spare to trample the nest of the toiling ant. Point out the bird, "laying the beams of its chambers" among the green leaves, or the thick grass, and make them shudder at the cruelty which could rifle its treasures. Inspire the with love for all innocent creatures, with admiration for every beautiful thing; for it is sweet to see the principles of love and beauty, leading the new-born soul to its Maker.

As you explain to the young child, the properties of the flower that he holds in his hand, speak with a smile of Him, whose "touch perfumes it and whose pencil paints." Make the voice of the first brook as it murmurs beneath the snow, and the gesture of the waving corn, and the icicle with its pen sharpened by frost, and the sleeted pane with its fantastick tracery, and the nod of the awful forest, and the fixed star on its burning throne, adjuncts in teaching your child the wonderful works of the Almighty.

The Mother who is thus assiduous in the work