INFLUENCE OF AN ELDER SISTER. 189 
INFLUENCE OF AN ELDER SISTER. 
Among the many topics which have, within a 
few years, been brought more before the pubiic 
mind than formerly, female influence holds a 
prominent place. Much has been said of it as 
exerted by mothers and teachers, and it is a most 
cheering circumstance that the efforts to lead 
those who sustain these relations to see and feel 
their responsibility have not been made without 
success. There is, however, one class of the fe¬ 
male community which has, I think, been too 
much overlooked, and of whose influence less has 
been said than of almost any other. I refer to the 
influence of an elder sister. 
No one, who has mingled much with the world, 
can have failed to notice the difference existing 
between families, as regards the harmony which 
prevails among their members ; and almost every 
one has observed the different feelings with which 
young men, after having left the paternal roof, re¬ 
gard the home of their childhood. Undoubtedly 
much of this difference is owing to a father’s ex¬ 
ample, and a mother’s moulding hand; yet much, 
very much, depends on the sister. 
And we can easily see how this is the case. A 
young man leaves home to engage in the busi¬ 
ness of one of our large commercial cities. He 
has previously been under the judicious parental 
