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ty. The infants, having these elementary prin*ciples of submission instilled into their minds, obedience became natural to them. They scarcely ever deserved or received a whipping. The cause being taken away at first, the effect ceased. Hence her children have been, and, to my certain knowledge, are a blessing to her; and she has nurtured ten, and raised seven, with more facility, with more ease and pleasure, than other parents have raised one; though a widow for sixteen years. This is a lesson better than volumes of metaphysical reasoning and philosophical disquisitions on education. The sentiments are familiar to the most illiterate, and which I have endeavored to simplify. Ye injudicious parents, whose children are an intolerable burden, if you want to learn the sacred art of gaining happiness for yourselves and for them, view this woman as in a looking glass, and see the way to gain this happy end. By indulging your children, you make yourselves infinite trouble, and give them infinite pain, both here and hereafter; in this world and that which is to come. You are in short, raising them up to be your tormentors, their own murderers, and enemies of the state. I would illustrate this assertion by a circumstance that took place yesterday. Walking past the court house, I stept in, for a few moments, to hear the trials then under discussion; and, to my no small surprise, I saw and heard an old womman, bending with age, give testimony against her undutiful son, who had robbed her of her house and property (by getting a false deed made in his own name) the only support of her old age, and afterwards turning her out of doors, to seek refuge in the public bounty.

It is now past twelve o'clock at night: the so

lemnity of the time, connected with the singularity of the above adventure, causes a train of spontaneous and momentous reflections to strike. my mind. How many parents, now wrapped in the close embraces of slumber, circle in their arms the children who one day will bring their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, and yet, alas! these same parents perhaps will peruse and approve of these sentiments respecting their children, but will not take one step in reforming the abuses their neglect has, and perhaps will still produce. If such persons suffer for their credulity and imbecility, their sufferings are the just fruit of their folly and neglect, but, alas! their ruined, contaminated, unconscious offspring, also suffer loss, the floods of destruction are poured upon them by the impetuosity, the invincibility, and virulence of their unbridled passions and unrestrained desires, which, like the river Nile, whose source is a small spring or rivulet, but which ends in a mighty river that is supplied by supernumerary streams and winding lakes, which all unite to augment the magnitude, and stimulate the impetuosity of this amazing river, till it empties itself into the boundless ocean; thus the little unconscious prattling infant's desires and passions are suffered to run unrestrained, at first indeed diminutive, but accumulating by degrees from bad to worse, as from youth to age, augmented by itinerant vicissitudes, local circum-. stances, and relative situations in life, till we see the sullen infant metamorphosed to a potent demagogue, a vindictive despot, whose mandate makes legions, armed with power and pride, march majestically fierce, at whose approach nations tremble, or, nod to their fall, and to gratify whose will, thousands of human beings must

be sacrificed at the shrine of imperial authority. This is a degrading but a true picture of the present state of civilized as well as savage nations, for turn our eyes which ever way we will, we see violence and oppression prevail, produced by maternal indulgence and paternal neglect. Though I am unequivocally prejudiced against elaborate and refined composition and literary embellishment in discussing a subject of this nature, and therefore endeavor to avoid all unnecessary amplification; yet, as a reference to facts is the only way to render argument by theory unnecessary, the elucidation of the subject requires some degree of systematical arrangement and connection; though a profusion of imagery is apt to distract the reader's attention, and bring it into a wrong channel, yet some portion is necessary to maintain a chain of reasoning, and make the mind recognize the connecting links in that chain. Alas! how many truly valuable and intrinsically momentous as well as scientific performances on this useful subject, are perfectly useless to all but philosophical readers, on account of extraneous matter connected with the "rubbish of hypothesis."

I would ask from whence do the savages of our own continent receive that invincible composure, that unconquerable patience in the midst of the greatest agonies and bodily tortures; when their enemies burn them by a slow fire, beginning at their feet, and thus consume their whole bodies. While they exult and triumph in the midst of their pain, and deride and defy their foes, and even solicit them to augment their torments; and thus expire without a single murmur or complaint: it is the force of example connected with precept which endues them with such stubborn magnanimity. The young Indian is taught by his par

ents to consider flinching and betraying signs of terror in the moments of danger or death, as the most detestable cowardice, the most disgraceful, and at the same time, the most humiliating picture of a wretch unfit to live on earth, and associate with mortals, or to be received into the ambrosial habitation of their patriotic ancestors after death. The children even take a pleasure in putting lighted coals of fire on their bodies by way of experiment, to ascertain who has the most courage:-in the same manner children might, if began with in time, be taught to abhor vice and admire virtue.

Education, if properly directed, may not only subdue wayward appetite, conquer the feelings of nature, subjugate hereditary depravity, but even annihilate physical sensations. In the same manner might sentiments be inculcated, and practices exhibited to the indiscriminate inspection of young females, that might impress their minds with such invincible disgust at the prospects of certain fashionable crimes, that they would hold them in the greatest abhorrence to the period of their dissolution; and the same might be said, with great propriety, of other vices.

By pursuing the idea, we may ascertain the most eligible method to call the juvenile mind, not only to investigate and admire, but even practice and participate social virtue, particularly that of benevolence; for instance, when the child is attempting to kill a fly, or any other insect, by appearing to pity and sympathize for the sufferings of the fly, and, at the same time,, showing that cruelty is wrong and displeasing to God. By inculcating such sentiments, the child may be led to feel mercy, and show clemency to all the animal creation. I can also assert from

my own experience, that sentimental love to God may be begotten, by representing the Almighty as a good and gracious being; as the father of the human family; that wills the good of all, and the harm of none of his children; and to reverse the idea, the malevolent passions may be engendered by an opposite line of conduct in parents and teachers, which unhappily is too often the case. But some persons will be ready to deny the above supposition, respecting children being early impressed with a sense of the love of God, and will bring forward the cases of many children, of exemplary pious parents, who are, notwithstanding, the most zealous votaries of infidelity, and champions of dissipation, though they received a truly religious education, and had the most upright sentiments inculcated upon their minds, by paternal solicitude and assiduity. All I can say in contradiction to this sentiment is, that too many good men use the most injudicious means to make their children such. First, the nurse begins with the infant almost as soon as he can lisp, to terrify him with the idea of a superior being, that will punish with vindictiveness. His heavenly parent, by such imprudent nurses, is metamorphosed to a raw head and bloody bones, or to a hobgoblin, or some other phantom of the brain, to frighten the child to sleep: thus a foundation is laid at the most important period of life, for the most invincible prejudices, the most unconquerable superstitions to be built upon. Aversion and terror are engendered, while love and tenderness are annihilated; that love which can be implanted, I had almost said sooner than any other passion, for daily experience proves that it is generally the easiest thing in life, to gain the affection of a child by acts of love and tenderness; while,