After a child is a year old, it must cease to be regarded as an irrational being by those about it; a quick, lively baby is always taking notice; its intelligence is becoming daily and hourly developed;—in a word, the first rudiments of education are entering its little mind. This may sound extravagant and fanciful, but what says proverbial philosophy? “With his mother’s milk the child drinketh education;” and let any one take three children of from a year-and-a-half to two years old, one of the three shall have been brought up by a quiet or ignorant nurse, one by an affectionate and sensible mother, and the other among a family of children; the first, unless it be a prodigy, will be far behind the second in quickness, and the third will be as much before the second. We would censure any one who mispronounced words before babies, or taught them to call things or animals by ridiculous names; and we would doubly censure any one who instilled fear into the hearts of young children by threats of “bogies,” “black men,” and such like nursery monsters. Many a grown man and woman has found it difficult to overcome the dislike to darkness implanted in them, when quite children, by some nursery bug-bears. Teach a child rather to believe that angels watch over it, induce it to be good from a fear of grieving its parents, but never destroy or sully that sweet confidence which is the most blessed part of childhood. Never tell a child a falsehood either; if you promise a thing, do it; if you say a thing, act up to it. Empty threats and vain promises made to quiet a child, teach it afterwards, in its turn, to disregard truth, and make it distrust those whom, next to God, it should love and honour; whereas “example is a constant monitor.” We are not advocates for “cramming” children too early with crude dry learning; but much may be taught without effort. “Line upon line” may be instilled by such simple stories, such pleasant gossip as children love to listen to, such bright pictures as they delight to look upon and have explained to them. There is in the present age a royal road to all the fundamental instruction needed by children for the first eight or ten years of their lives; the dull, uninteresting paths we had to tread are now decked with so many flowers that they have become attractive and pleasant. Even the very toys and games are made the means of improvement; and history, arithmetic, and geography may now be learned as actual amusements. The physical wants of growing children are a sufficiency of good plain food at regular hours, exercise in the open air, well-ventilated rooms, clothing warm enough to promote health, and sufficiently easy in fit not to impede growth or a free use of the limbs; strong shoes or boots to protect the feet from damp, and a proper allowance of sleep taken at regular hours,—no child under six years of age being suffered to sit up after eight o’clock, and all under twelve being safely in bed by nine.