vent; but it was in the reign of his brother Charles that it was carried to the utmost extent of inhuman barbarism. Catherine, finding that all her attempts entirely to abolish the Protestant religion had proved ineffectual, suggested to her son the inhuman idea of having a general massacre throughout his dominions of all those who professed that persuasion. The cruel proposal met with a favourable reception, and orders were immediately sent to the magistrates of the different provinces to have it put in practice. In Paris the conspiracy was carried on with such a profound secresy, that not the smallest suspicion was entertained of the inhuman design. The eve of St. Bartholomew's day was pitched upon for this barbarous undertaking, and the signal for the commencement of it was the tolling of a bell. The guards and militia had been previously put under arms, and the command given to the Duke of Guise. The The whole night, and part of the next day, was spent in this inhuman butchery; and in Paris, and the provinces, it is computed that upwards of thirty thousand souls perished. So execrable and bloody a design, formed by a woman whom the Protestants had never provoked, is one of those uncommon instances of barbarism which requires the utmost confidence in the historian's veracity to give credit to. But, alas! the different authors who have disgraced the page of history by a relation of it, are too consistent in the account of the fact, to leave a doubt upon the mind as to its authenticity! I cannot, my dear girls, close a section which has so interesting a subject as religion for its theme, without endeavouring to point out the peculiar advantages which are likely to result from the practice of it. You are not to imagine, that when I exhort you to be religious, I wish you to be come come more formal or solemn in your manners than others of the same years, or expect you to become their supercilious reprovers. On the contrary, I admire the volatility that is attendant upon youth, and would rather promote than lessen it: but the spirit of true religion breathes gentleness and affability; it gives a native unaf fected ease to the behaviour; is kind, social, and cheerful; and very different from that gloomy and illiberal superstition which clouds the brow, sharpens the temper, and déjects the spirits. It corrects and humanizes constitutional vices; and, above all, produces an universal charity and love to all mankind. My son, hear the instructions of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Whoso loveth instruction, loveth knowledge; but he that hateth reproof, is foolish. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work is pure, or whether it is right. Proverbs. IN the catalogue of human duties, none have a stronger claim upon your attention than those which I mean to make the sub. ject of this section; for next to your Maker, your parents are entitled to your veneration, gratitude, and esteem. Yet, with all these claims upon their children's affection, how often has the unhappy parent the misery of finding pertness substituted in the place of humility, arrogance in that of dependence, and indifference in that of duty! and, instead of their children submitting with docility to the experience of age, beholds them vain through ignorance, and presumptuous through folly! Although, my beloved girls, I am not fearful of becoming one of those unhappy parents, yet I cannot help cautioning you against a contagious evil, which is the ge neral source of all those calamities that are attendant upon the season of youth: I mean the degree of self-conceit which is usually attached to that period of life. But it is most peculiarly unfortunate that the age which stands most in need of advice, should be the most prone to reject it. In China, so great is the veneration and respect in which the parental character is held, that an instance of disputing its authority, is absolutely unknown. And the ancient Romans |