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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



a wiser, it will also make him a better man — better in 

 spirit, better in body, better in purse and in pocket. In 

 truth, his self-culture — and self-dependence, ^its most 

 valued fruit — are just the touchstones which change po- 

 verty to wealth, and enable a man to rise in the world. It 

 would be easy to cite examples to prove this ; but we 

 deem it needless. The maxims of prudence— the cur- 

 rent coin of those who have fought the battle of life and 

 won it — and the results of experience, alike abound ia 

 truths which point to the worth and value, in a worldly 

 if in no higher and holier sense, of self-culture, self- 

 dependence, and self-denial, all three linked together in 

 a bond of high utility and practical power. Nor let 

 the employed be influenced by the belief that the em- 

 ployer does not wish his rise in the social scale. Many 

 miserable minions of wealth there may be, who do not 

 wish it ; but, with more, the feeling exists that it will be 

 a grand day for Old England when the employed shall 

 raise themselves, or be raised, from the degradation of 

 their vices to the dignity of their labour ; when the 

 ranks of the middle shall be recruited from the ranks of 

 the labouring classes ; and these fired with a new zeal, 

 and animated with a new motive — a desire bright and 

 ever brightening, because ever aspiring— to be as true 

 and loyal to themselves and their destiny as they are 

 useful to the community. We believe this ; and he 

 who would urge the labourer to believe the contrary, be 

 he pot-house or platform orator, is in this thing the 

 Devil's emissary, and lending himself to the Devil's 

 " lie." This is plain speaking ; but, in this matter, at 

 least, the worth of the thing lies too near the heart of so- 

 ciety to be passed lightly over, and not dealt plainly 

 with. We are no advocates for using fine names to 

 designate foul things ; to cut and carve at them, round 

 and shape them off, till \^e get rid of their angularities 

 and protuberances, beautify their ugliness, and gloss 

 them over and burnish them up, till they, lose all out- 

 ward semblance to their real selves ; till vice almost 

 comes to have a look of virtue, and lies and deceit the 

 semblance of truth and sincerity. There is much good, 

 believe us, reader, in calling things by their right names 

 — a lie, a lie ; and work, work : not the one truth, and 

 the other play. The lack of this avowal of our belief in 

 the real nature of things lies pretty closely at the root 

 of much of our social evil — our sham-worship and our 

 " opaque flunkeyisms," as Carlyle has it— and pretty 

 closely, good reader, at the root of that social evil, 

 the low moral and physical condition of the labouring 

 classes, which forms the subject of our present papers. 



Cultivating, then, the habits of self-denial and self- 

 dependence, but ever with a trust in Providence and in 

 His guiding wisdom — showing in his daily transactions 

 with his employer, as well as in those with his neigh- 

 bours, a high integrity, sound prudence, trustfulness, 

 and charity to all and with all — the labourer will best be 

 able to act a living example to all around him, and, ever 

 learning, will best be able to be ever teaching, and thus 

 his labour of toil will become a labour of love, as he 

 gees his influence spreaJins^ around him for good, eleva- 

 ting his neighbours, and bringing fast to a wide-spread 

 realization the wish oi the poor mau'd poet, that — 



" A virtuous populace may rise the while, 



Aud stand a wall of fire around 



Their much-loved isle." 

 This great work of the education of the home, pre- 

 ceded by, as obviously it must be, necessary self-reform 

 and self-education, we have hitherto considered as being 

 carried on by the males amongst the employed, and 

 these chiefly married men, who have families over whom 

 they have to exert an influence, and homes which they 

 have to adorn and purify. But they will require help- 

 meets in this work — nay, from the very circumstances 

 attendant upon their daily toil, they will be so much 

 absent from their homes as to be obliged necessarily to 

 delegate their power to another; and this other, who so 

 fitting as the wife and mother to wield ? The husband 

 must be the head — the bond, or band, of the home; 

 for such is the primary signification of the term 

 " husband," which knits all the family together in the 

 oneness of a common interest, and in the strength of 

 love. But the wife must give the most frequent teach- 

 ings, because she possesses the most frequent opportu- 

 nities. Indeed, the truth is, that the education of the 

 home is mainly dependent upon the mother. Fenelon 

 says that " the education of women is more important 

 than that of men, since the improvement of man is always 

 their work." And another writer states that "the 

 health and purity of the social system are placed under 

 the immediate guardianship of woman." And we all 

 know how the majority of great and good men have 

 been indebted to the training of their mother. Seeing, 

 then, the importance of her duties and the extent of her 

 influence, it behoves the wife and mother to do all in 

 her power to prepare herself for the exercise of this in- 

 fluence, and the performance of these duties. And to 

 her will apply much, though in a sense more or less 

 modified, of what we have already said as to the im- 

 portance of self-culture and self-denial to the man. 

 And it will only be when both together are actuated by 

 the same riglit feelings, and live according to the same 

 right principles, that they will be help-meets in truth to 

 each other ; the trust of the wife in the husband being 

 met with confidence in the wife by the husband ; the 

 strength of counsel of the one by the loving obedience 

 of the other ; and all begetting alike obedience and love 

 in the children ; till, for the responsibilities of the family, 

 they shall taste of its delights, and be gratified by its 

 pleasures, and for the wise teachings of the hearth they 

 shall partake of the pure sanctities of home. 



The benefits derived from the "education of example," 

 and the " education of the home." These naturally 

 lead us to the " education of the school," in what 

 direction this should lead, and in what manner it should 

 be carried out. So much has been written on the sub- 

 ject in this and other journals, and with which our 

 readers are doubtless familiar, that we are spared the 

 necessity of going very deeply into its details. What- 

 ever school education should consist of, it should nol 

 consist merely of ihe education of the intellect, to the 

 exclusion of the education of the heart and feelings. So 

 much stress has unfortunately been laid on "accom- 

 plishments," falsely so called, that in getting up the 

 polish wc have obtained it at the wxpeuse of the pith of 



