"MRS. BARNARD."—Let your children wear aprons, by all means. They are not out of fashion; but, on the contrary, new patterns are constantly being designed. See our fashion article for the present month.
"A NEW MAMMA" will find several editions of "Mother Goose" in the market. One is contained in "Harry's Ladder to Learning," published by Evans & Brittan, one of the best juveniles we know, as there are many excellent things inclosed in its covers. It can also be had separate, postage and all, for less than a quarter of a dollar. A more elaborate edition, as full of clever designs as the Christmas-pie of little Jack Horner was supposed to be of plums, is published by John Rund Smith, London, under the title of the "Nursery Rhymes of England." Also imported by Evans & Brittan.
"MISS A. B. L." can safely have her white and muslin dresses for the ensuing season made with infants' waists. If her figure is small and light, they cannot fail to be becoming; and, for quite young ladies, the style never is out of date.
"MRS. P. L.," of Darien, Geo., can have her books by package or mail. We add to our list for reading aloud, "An Attic Philosopher in Paris: being the Journal of a Happy Man," published by the Appletons. Its tone is most genial and pure, entirely free from the French sentimentality that borders on frivolity, and, at the same time, full of pathetic truths. For the children, we would particularly commend "Our Little Comfort" and "Love's Lessons," both of which are admirable.
"MRS. H."—An infant's skirt should not be over a yard in length. Of course, the petticoats should be a hem shorter, the flannel shortest of all.
"MISS LIZZIE N."—See fashion article.
"ELLEN" had better send an order for patterns, now that they are so cheap—much cheaper than words.
Of the work that "MRS. R." has asked our opinion as a book for the family, we must be allowed to say that we do not consider its morality to be pure, nor the sympathies it arouses womanly. Dwelling on such scenes cannot do the general good that some critics seem to expect from it. We agree with them that "ignorance is not virtue;" at the same time, there is much to be dreaded in familiarizing the innocent mind with the details of sin and wickedness. "To the pure, all things are pure," again urges the specious moralist; but, alas for our nature that it should be so! the seeds of impurity are to be found in every earth-born mind, only too ready to be developed. Poison the mind, the imagination, and you open the flood-gates of innumerable temptations. Only too true is the lesson of a sterner moralist—
"Vice is a monster of such frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;