66

August 31. In the whole course of our journey we have not passed so interesting a day as yesterday. Meeting General and Mrs. Gaines at Buffalo, the General proposed that we should journey together to the Falls, and visit in our way the battle-ground on the Canada frontier. We accordingly engaged an Extra to meet us at Waterloo, but ourselves took boat across the lake to Fort Erie, the scene of his exploits. We there fought all his battles o'er again' amid the ruins which he left behind him. Chippeway, Lundy's Lane, and Queenstown Heights were all visited by us in the course of the day, the latter commanding a noble and delightful view of fifty miles of lake and land.

6

"I will not describe the Falls, for I cannot ; neither painting nor description can touch them. It is as much as one can do to bear the awful impressions which rush in upon the mind."

Under date of the 11th of September, Miss Bard writes in her diary, "This evening arrived in perfect health our beloved party, after having enjoyed five weeks to the utmost extent of their wishes and expectations, and are now preparing with a large party to witness the reception given at West Point to the Marquis de Lafayette."

CHAPTER VI.

HOME INSTRUCTION, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND

FINANCE: 1824-1827.

OME claims and the education of his children

were matters that my father never neglected because of professional and outside duties. Rather did he gather up the experience which these latter gave him to apply them with practical and loving perseverance to those in whose improvement he was most interested. As this is not the universal experience in the case of busy professional men, I here add some extracts from home letters to show how strikingly it was exemplified in his case.

To his eldest daughter, now in her sixteenth year, spending the winter away from home, he writes:

From nine to

MY DEAREST Daughter, three is not too long to study, but it is too long to sit; you must, therefore, break in upon its sedentary character as much as you can. It is the division I have always liked, the morning for study, the afternoon for exercise, and the evening for cheerful amusement. Or, in other words, the morning for the mind, the afternoon for the body, and the evening for the social affections.

To the same, at Miss Roberts' school:

I have long wished for

you

to

"October 30. have an opportunity of a short residence from home. The fault of character which I wished to see corrected is that of reliance on the care and attention and direction of others, which is destructive to all firmness and independence of character. Home fosters this weakness; a residence abroad corrects it, by forcing you to the exercise of your own understanding and to depend on your own exertions.

"Another error to which you are naturally inclined is a reserve which wraps you up in your own feelings, and indisposes you to enter with cheerfulness into the society and concerns of others. Throw this off, my dear daughter, for if indulged in it will make you less amiable and less useful. Force yourself to find occupation, if you cannot pleasure, in the company of your equals; enter into their innocent amusements and conversation, and after a time you will find it agreeable, and your own happiness and your power of bestowing it upon others will be greatly increased. We are generally happy as well as good in proportion as we are forgetful of ourselves and thoughtful of others."

To the same, while staying at Hyde Park: "February 8.

your proposed jaunt.

We are all well pleased with Whatever adds to your health

and spirits is giving a new value to book learning. It brings it into play, turns learning into conversational powers, history into anecdote, and poetry into The ball last night passed without any of us to witness its splendor, or partake of its gayety,

taste.

so that I am afraid you will receive but a lame account of it. Indeed, I do not know when we shall get to a ball again, having fallen into the error of the golden age of believing that they have little to do with true gayety of heart. You may perhaps correct our notions a little next winter, but I forewarn you they are very stubborn, and will require you to wean us from them by very slow degrees. We have found out by our philosophy that there are very few free in this world, and that there are many other slaves beside those in the West Indies, and many other tyrannical task-masters besides those the Manumission Society tells us of. Instances have fallen under my own observation of their exacting such tasks from their slaves as have destroyed health and cheerfulness, and sometimes even life itself. But such cruelty is too shocking a subject for your sensitive feelings, so I pass to the gayer picture of our family fireside."

To the same:

"March 13.-The older children go to school, the younger are left to the teaching of mother wit, whom I have always regarded as an excellent instructress, aided by their aunt with her main supporters, Addison and Johnson, your mother with the best of books, and your poor father with more anxiety than zeal, more zeal than diligence, more diligence than leisure, and that little leisure armed with an arithmetic in one hand, and Walter Scott and Shakespeare in the other."

A few years later I find the following hints on study prepared for a younger daughter:

MEMORANDA FOR MY DAUGHTER.

NEW YORK, January 1, 1828.

First Great Principle. -Your country winter is intended for the benefit of your health. Everything, therefore, must yield to this. Study is altogether secondary. Exercise, gayety, and talk are better than books. Knowledge may be got afterwards, health and spirits are to be secured now.

Second. Readiness and correctness with your pen is the main point in which you need improvement. So far as regards the reputation of being well educated, and, I may add, for her own comfort, it is more important for a lady to write a good note or pleasing letter, than to know all languages, and the whole circle of sciences.

Third. In reading, everything depends upon the zeal and interest you take in what you read; to read as a task is perfect waste of time, it makes stupid without making wise.

Fourth. Do not attempt to remember above a hundredth part of what you read. Choose what is most striking or illustrative of principles; fix it by repetition, perhaps by writing, and, above all, by associating it with what you already know on the same subject, and if you wish to fix it forever in the memory, bring it forward in conversation as soon afterwards as you can.

Lastly. I need hardly impress upon you that the value of all education lies in its application. To make your own mind firm, benevolent, and resolute, -to make others happy.