what constitutes the real felicity of man; and, while hu heart expands itself to the influence of the simple and intimate delights of the domestic circle, the demons of avarice and ambition, if not exorcised from his breast, at leas! for a time, relax their grasp. How deplorable would be the consequence if all these were reversed; and woman, instead of checking the violence of these passions, were to employ her blandishments and charms to add fuel to their rage! How much wider would become the empire of guilt! What a portentous and intolerable amount would be added to the sum of the crimes and miseries of the humau race!

But the influence of the female character on the virtue of man, is not seen merely in restraining and softening the violence of human passions. To her is mainly committed the task of pouring into the opening mind of infancy its first impressions of duty, and of stamping on its susceptible heart the first image of its God. Who will not confess the influence of a mother in forming the heart of a child? What man is there who cannot trace the origin of many of the best maxims of his life to the lips of her who gave him birth? How wide, how lasting, how sacred is that part of woman's influence! Who that thinks of it, who that ascribes any moral effect to education, who that believes tha; any good may be produced, or any evil prevented by it can need any arguments to prove the importance of the character and capacity of her, who gives its earliest bias to the infant mind?

There is yet another mode, by which woman may exert a powerful influence on the virtue of a community. It rests with her, in a pre-eminent degree, to give tone and elevation to the moral character of the age, by deciding the degree of virtue that shall be necessary to afford a passport to her society. The extent of this influence has perhaps never been fully tried; and, if the character of our sex is not better, it is to be confessed that it is in no trifling degree to be ascribed to the fault of yours. If all the favour of woman were given only to the good; if it were known that the charms and attractions of beauty, and wisdom, and wit, were reserved only for the pure; if, in one word, something of a similar rigour were exerted to

exclude the profligate and abandoned of our sex from your society, as is shown to those, who have fallen from virtue in your own, how much would be done to reenforce the motives to moral purity among us, and impress on the minds of all a reverence for the sanctity and obligations of virtue !

The influence of woman on the moral sentiments of society is intimately connected with her influence on its religious character; for religion and a pure and elevated morality must ever stand in the relation to each other of effect and cause. The heart of woman is formed for the abode of Christian truth; and for reasons alike honourable to her character and to that of the Gospel. From the nature of Christianity this must be so. The foundation of evangelical religion is laid in a deep and constant sense of the invisible presence, providence and influence of an invisible Spirit, who claims the adoration, reverence, gratitude and love of his creatures. By man, busied as he is in the cares, and absorbed in the pursuits of the world, this great truth is, alas! too often and too easily forgotten and disregarded; while woman, less engrossed by occupation, more" at leisure to be good," led often by her duties to retirement, at a distance from many temptations, and endued with an imagination more easily excited and raised than man's, is better prepared to admit and cherish, and be affected by, this solemn and glorious acknowledgment of a God.

Again; the Gospel reveals to us a Saviour, invested with little of that brilliant and dazzling glory, with which conquest and success would array him in the eyes of proud and aspiring man; but rather as a meek and magnanimous sufferer, clothed in all the mild and passive graces, all the sympathy with human wo, all the compassion for human frailty, all the benevolent interest in human welfare, which the heart of woman is formed to love; together with all that solemn and supernatural dignity, which the heart of woman is formed peculiarly to feel and to reverence. To obey the commands, and aspire to imitate the peculiar virtues, of such a being, must always be more natural and easy for her than for man.

So, too, it is with that future life which the Gospel un veils, where all that is dark and doubtful in this shall be explained; where penitence shall be forgiven, and faith and virtue accepted; where the tear of sorrow shall be dried, the wounded bosom of bereavement be healed; where love and joy shall be unclouded and immortal. To these high and holy visions of faith I trust that man is not always insensible; but the superior sensibility of woman, as it makes her feel more deeply the emptiness and wants of human existence here, so it makes her welcome with more deep and ardent emotions the glad tidings of salvation, the thought of communion with God, the hope of the purity, happiness and peace of another and a better world.

In this peculiar susceptibility of religion in the female character, who does not discern a proof of the benignant care of Heaven of the best interest of man? How wise it is, that she, whose instructions and example must have so powerful an influence on the infant mind, should be formed to own and cherish the most sublime and important of truths! The vestal flame of piety, lighted up by Heaven in the breast of woman, diffuses its light and warmth over the world;-and dark would be the world if it should ever be extinguished and lost.

Character of James Monroe."-WIRT.

IN his stature, he is about the middle height of men, rather firmly set, with nothing further remarkable in his person, except his muscular compactness, and apparent ability to endure labour. His countenance, when grave, has rather the expression of sternness and irascibility: a smile, however, (and a smile is not unusual with him in a social circle,) lights it up to very high advantage, and gives it a most impressive and engaging air of suavity and benevolence. Judging merely from his countenance, he is between the ages of forty-five and fifty years. His dress

From "Letters of the British Spy," first published in 1806.

and personal appearance are those of a plain and modest gentleman. He is a man of soft, polite, and even assiduous attentions; but these, although they are always well timed, judicious, and evidently the offspring of an obliging and philanthropic temper, are never performed with the striking and captivating graces of a Marlborough or a Bolingbroke. To be plain, there is often in his manner an inartificial and even an awkward simplicity, which, while it provokes the smile of a more polished person, forces him to the opinion, that Mr. Monroe is a man of a most sincere and artless soul.

Nature has given him a mind neither rapid nor rich; and, therefore, he cannot shine on a subject which is entirely new to him. But, to compensate him for this, he is endued with a spirit of restless and generous emulation, a judgment solid, strong and clear, and a habit of application, which no difficulties can shake, no labours tire. With these aids, simply, he has qualified himself for the first honours of this country; and presents a most happy illustration of the truth of the maxim, Quisque, suæ fortunæ faber. For his emulation has urged him to perpetual and unremitting inquiry his patient and unwearied industry has concentrated before him all the lights which others have thrown on the subjects of his consideration, together with all those which his own mind, by repeated efforts, is enabled to strike; while his sober, steady and faithful judgment has saved him from the common error of more quick and brilliant geniuses-the too hasty adoption of specious, but false conclusions.

These qualities render him a safe and an able counsellor. And by their constant exertion he has amassed a store of knowledge, which, having passed seven times through the crucible, is almost as highly corrected as human knowledge can be; and which certainly may be much more safe. ly relied on, than the spontaneous and luxuriant growth of a more fertile, but less chastened mind," a wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot." Having engaged very early, first in the life of a soldier, then of a statesman, then of a laborious practitioner of the law, and finally again of a politician, his intellectual operations have been almost entirely confined to juridical and political topics

Indeed, it is easy to perceive, that the mind of a man engaged in so active a life must possess more native supple. ness, versatility and vigour, than that of Mr. Monroe, to be able to make an advantageous tour of the sciences in the rare interval of importunate duties. It is possible that the early habit of contemplating subjects as expanded as the earth itself, with all the relative interests of the great nations thereof, may have inspired him with an indifference, perhaps an inaptitude, for mere points of literature. Algernon Sydney has said, that he deems all studies unworthy the serious regard of a man, except the study of the principles of just government; and Mr. Monroe, perhaps, concurs with our countryman in this as well as in his other principles. Whatever may have been the occasion, his acquaintance with the fine arts is certainly very limited and superficial; but, making allowances for his bias towards republicanism, he is a profound and even an eloquent states

man.

Knowing him to be attached to that political party, who, by their opponents, are sometimes called democrats, sometimes jacobins; and aware also that he was a man of warm and even ardent temper, I dreaded much, when I first entered his company, that I should have been shocked and disgusted with the narrow, virulent, and rancorous invectives of party animosity. How agreeably, how delightfully, was I disappointed! Not one sentiment of intolerance polluted his lips. On the contrary, whether they be the offspring of rational induction, of the habit of surveying men and things on a great scale, of native magnanimity, or a combination of all those causes, his principles, as far as they were exhibited to me, were forbearing, liberal, widely extended, and great. As the elevated ground which he already holds has been gained merely by the lint of application; as every new step which he mounts becomes a mean of increasing his powers still further, by opening a wider horizon to his view, and thus stimulating his enterprise afresh, re-invigorating his habits, multiplying the materials, and extending the range, of his knowledge, it would be no matter of surprise to me, if before his death the world should see him at the head of the American administration. So much for the governor of the common