PARENTS may give “line upon line and precept upon precept,” in their assiduous watchfulness over the manners and morals of their children, yet, if they do not constantly bear in mind that example has more influence over the young than precept, their efforts will be of little avail. If you reprove a child for careless usage of books, show them how they are injured and defaced, by turning down corners, scribbling on the margin, or throwing them down on the face, how much good will such lectures do, if, when he enters your library, or comes where you have been reading, the child sees your books tossed about, the bindings strained, and the corners in a most undesirable condition? You endeavor to inculcate a habit of neatness in your daughter; you insist that when she returns from a walk or ride she shall smooth out her bonnet-strings, brush the dust from it, and put it at once in the bonnet-box; you tell her to fold her shawl neatly, hang up her sack, pull the fingers of her gloves straight, fold them up and lay them in their appropriate place; and this you request her to do, not once or twice, but habitually, not only because it is tidy, but also a great saving of time and garments in the course of a year. But if you come in, and toss your street garments about in the most careless manner, how much good, think you, will all your words of instruction have accomplished? You may enforce obedience, but compulsory habits are not usually abiding; and, when old enough to cast off restraint, it will be, not so much the _words you have spoken_, as the things your child has _seen you do habitually_, which will influence and guide her womanhood. You resolutely object to your children using low phrases,--what is termed _slang_; but if your own conversation is largely interspersed with foolish or needless ejaculations, fight against it as you may, you will find it impossible to prevent them from copying your mode of speaking, and it will be very strange if they do not carry it to a much greater extent than you have done.