shall come to his dinner as the grand family reunion of the day-"all studies solemnly defied," all cares locked up in the countingroom-when he shall actually eat less because he has more time, (the physician can explain that)-when there may be some chance of enlivening and elevating that humble but necessary occupation, with sprightly or grave discourse-and when it may be followed, not with a hasty walk to the warehouse, or an anxious retreat to the study, but with those domes tic or social engagements and recreations which will promote digestion, cheerfulness, refinement, virtue, and happiness, altogether.

I must add a word upon our modes of dress. With a climate twice as trying as that of England, we are, on this point, twice as negligent. Whe ther there is actual violence done to the form in the absurd attempt to make it genteel, I will not undertake to decide; but certainly the bust of an English woman shows that it never was, and never could have been subjected to those awful processes of girting, which must have been applied in many cases to produce what we see among us. At any rate, the fearful prevalence of consumptions in our country, is an admonition of our duty on this subject of dress, that ought not to be disregarded. And especially in a country where no limits are

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set to fashionable imitation-where a man is very liable to mistake upon the door step, his domestic for his wife or daughter-this is a subject that comes home to every family, whether low or high, and comes too in the most palpable forms of interest-in the suffering and expense of sickness, and in the bitterness of bereavement.

But consumption and death are not the only alarming forms in which the subject of female health presents itself. Let any one look at the women of America, and, with all their far-famed delicacy and beauty, let him tell me what he thinks of them, as the mothers of future generations? What are the prospects of the national constitution and health, as they are to be read in the thousands of pale faces and slender forms, unfit for the duties of maternity, which we see around us? Let any one go with this question to their nurseries, and he will see the beginning of things to come. Let him go to the schools, and he will turn over another leaf in the book of prophecy. Oh! for a sight at home, of the beautiful groups of children that are constantly seen in England, with their rosy cheeks and robust frames!

I

may seem to be speaking in terms more earnest and admonitory than there is occasion for ; but I am persuaded that the public mind among

us, is by no means possessed with the full importance of this subject, nor with the extent of the evil referred to. I ask any man to cast about his thoughts upon the circle of his female acquaintances, and by some inquiry of their physician or of their particular friends to assist him if necessary, to ascertain what is the real state of their health. The result, I have no doubt, he will find to be, that three out of four, perhaps six out of seven, are, most of the year, unwell-ailing, complaining, feeble, suffering. Certainly more than half of the female population of our country are suffering, either with dyspepsy, or with nervous disorders, or with symptoms of consumption, or with some unaccountable failure of strength, or with some of the many other forms of disease incident to retired and sedentary habits. If any one thinks this statement extravagant, I will only again desire him to make out the list of his acquaintances, and see how it stands. Neither do I say, on the other hand, that everybody is well, in any country. But I do consider the case of our own, in this respect, to be very peculiar.*

* I heard the other day the following fireside conversation :— Doctor, will you please to look at that girl's tongue ?

Doctor. It is very much coated.

Mother. It almost always is, more or less.

If it be so, certainly it would not be easy with any words to overrate the importance of the subject. Why, it would not be difficult to swell it to the importance of " the temperance cause" itself— let it only have for a while the same exclusive and concentrated view fixed upon it. It is not posterity alone that comes into the account; it is not present misery alone; it is vice also. How many have been driven to that very intemperance of which so much is said, and so justly-how many have been repelled from their home, and carried to places of evil resort, by ill health, by low spirits, by a sad and complaining face there, that bereft home of all its charms!

Can nothing be done? If I had thought so, I would have said nothing. But I believe that much can be done, if attention can be aroused to the subject.

We have, doubtless, an unpropitious climate. It is unfavourable to the necessary out-of-door exercise. We have no such habits in this respect as the English-nothing approaching to them;

Doctor. Oh! I never saw the tongue of an American woman that was not.

All. Why, what do you mean?

Doctor. I mean what I say; that I scarcely ever saw the tongue of an American female that did not show that mark of ill health.

VOL. I.--M

and the difference is doubtless owing to our climate. In the summer it is too hot for exercise; in the winter it is too cold; in the spring, it is too variable. The autumn, indeed, is favourable; but that is too short a season to form habits which shall bear up against the adverse influences of the whole year.

What, then, is to be done? I answer that an effort must be made proportioned to the difficulties that are to be overcome. Exercise, out of doors, can be taken in our climate the year round; as there are some good examples to prove. I am told, indeed, that some improvement is already taking place in the habits of our American ladies in this respect.

And many things besides this can be done. Clothing can be better adapted to the purposes of exercise in, and defence against our climate. We want more of the foreign liberty of walking out, without being in full dress. I am sorry to observe the prejudice of fashion against the India rubber shoe--actual instrument for advancing civilization, as I consider it-promoter of societywhich stands instead of carriages, and horses, and servants, if it were but duly appreciated and used. To go back a step: our children should be brought up on plain fare in the nursery; they should be