Domestic.

Clutha Leader, Volume III, Issue 139, 9 March 1877, Page 7

Domestic.

A man may be disposed to save money and lay it by for sickness or other purposes; but he cannot do this unless his wife lets him or helps him. A prudent, frugal, thrifty woman is a crown of glory to her husband. She helps him in all his good resolutions ;- she may, by quiet and gpn tie encouragement, bring out his better qualifies j and by her example she may implant in him noble principles, which are the seeds of the highest practical virtues.

Home, says Dr Charming, is the chief school of human virtue. Its .responsibilities, joys, sorrows, smiles, tears, hopes, and solicitudes, form the chief interests of human life. Go where a man may, home is the centre to Avhich his heart turns. The thought of his home nerves his arm and lightens his toil. For that his heart yearns when he is afar off. There he garners up his best treasures. God has ordained for men alike the highest earthly happiness in providing for all .the sanctuary of home. . ' "

Dull Boys.—- Don't be discouraged. Slow growth is often sure growth. Some minds are like. Norwegian pines. They are slow in growth, but they are striking their roots deep. Some of -the greatest men have been dull boys. Dryden and Swift were dull as boys. So was Goldsmith. So Avas Gibbon. So was Sir Walter Scott. Napoleon at school had so much difficulty in learning his Latin that the master said it would need a gimlet to get a Avord into his head. Douglas Jerrold was so backward in his boyhood that at nine he Avas scarcely able to read. Isaac Barrow, one of the greatest divines the English Chinch has ever produced, was so impenetrably -stupid, in his early years, that his father more than once said that if God took away any of his children, he hoped it would be Isaac, as he feared he would never be fit for anything in this . world. Yet that boy was the genius of the family.

Lovk-t Making. — False modesty fre quent'y deters women from doing their share of love-making. From fear of being considered over-bold, they are apt to be over-shy, and thus discourage retentions which they secretly desire. Women are as Avell entitled a» men to express their love, only each sex has its own way-— man with words and woman Avith manners. The one is quite as expressive as the other; and, in either case, the more delicately expressed the better. A woman who does not express her attachment by her manner cannot expect to be loved. It is altogether a foolish, bocause it is a hypocritical practice, that of her pretending to be indifferent to those whom she really and legitimately loves. Of course she ought to conceal excess, because it is a weakness we Want to cure; but preference is a legitimate feeling which may be always modestly manifested by any woman.

In a bite number of JFors Clavigera Mr Ruskin advises his uirl readers as follows : — v Dress as plainly as your parents Avill allow you, but in the bright colours (if they become you), and in the best materials — that is to say, in those Avhich Avear longest. When you are really, in want of a new dress buy it (or make it) in the fashion ; but never quit an old one merely because, it has become -unfashionable. And if the fashion be costly you must not follow it. You may wear broad stripes or narrow, .bright colours or dark, short petticoats or long (in moderation), as the public .wish you ; but you must not buy yards of useless stuff to make a knot or a flounce of, nor drag* them behind you over the ground. And your Avalking dress must never touch the ground at all.' I have lost much of the faith lonce had in the common sense: and even in the personal delicacy of the present race of average 'English women by seeing how they will allow their dresses to sweep the streets as if it is the fashion 'to be scavengers."

Fathers' Mistakes. — It is easy enough for men of great sagacity in general maters to make blunders in relation to their own children. The reasons are obvious enough. Some, suppose all the necessary knowledge for this portion of life's duties come naturally. Some leave things to settle themselves. Some are absorbed in general outside affairs, and only awaken to the knowledge of a wrong bent when the twig they forgot is. a tree. And, with all, the children are so much a part of the parent that a portion of the difficulty of knowing himself applies to the effort to know them. - It is a mistake for fathers to toil all'their life that their children may escape toil all theirs. 7 Suppose the calculation correct, and permanent idleness secured for the next generation, what evidence is there that the boys and girls will, be happier and better "for it?- The boys will be. exposed to the devices of " sharks,*' and the girls ot fortune«-hunter^. Leave something for them also to do. It is a mistake to suppose that a general good education will secure success in life. No wise man accepts a general invitation to dinner , v it involves no particulars. Only a particular education is of practical use. Let the boys be educated for something particular—lf- wyers, cler gymen* printers, .merchants, tradesmen—only something definite* ,TNo hands are so often idle as those which are supposed by the owners — and no one else—- fit to " turn to anything,"