Would every mother in this intelligent and free nation thus carefully train up her children, we should soon feel its beneficial effects, not only in private life, but in society. It would produce Davids, Edwards and Dwights to adorn our pulpits and colleges, Washingtons, Madisons and Jays to fill our military and civil offices and Brainards, Eliots and Mayhews to disseminate knowledge and religion among the heathen. A faithful mother not only points out the road to virtue, but arduously guards her offspring against the dangers of dissipation in all its various forms. The theatre, the gaming table, and the midnight revel, would not open the gates of the bottomless abyss, to so many of our deluded youth, had their mothers with agonizing eloquence warned them to shun those dangerous inlets to the infernal regions, when as yet the world had not cast its iron chains around their hearts, while their minds were in a degree pure and spotless, and their bosoms glowed with love to her who bore them. It is not enough to plant moral principles in the heart and to warn the young against the baleful effects of dissipation—the syren tongue of pleasure will often lure the youth of lively temper from the paths of virtue, unless pleasing entertainments are found at home to relax the mind. Women who have the arrangement of domestic amusements should seek to procure such as are innocent and improving not only to induce their children, but their husbands and brothers, to delight more in the domestic circle than in the most elegant public entertainment. And would mothers, wives and sisters exert their talents as much to please their own family as they do to entertain strangers, we shall see fewer husbands, sons and brothers resorting to public places for amusement. I cannot elucidate this theory better than by giving you the history of one of my earliest friends. Mrs. B—— possessed a superior understanding which had received the highest improvement that a solid and polished education could bestow. These advantages were rendered more pleasing by the charms which pure and ardent piety cast around her sincere.... Her husband was so much engaged in public business he seldom found leisure to assist in the arduous task of training up their three sons to usefulness. Mrs. B. early discovered that her sons possessed uncommon eagerness of spirit, and would be easily led astray by the arts of the designing and flattering multitude, who swarm around young men of high rank and large fortunes. She therefore devoted her time and talents and all the power of her mind to guard them against the dangers which surrounded their path. While infants in the mother’s arms she began to form their tempers and check their too glowing sensibility by teaching them to bear and forbear with each other’s petulance and to submit with patience when any disappointment occurred.