I am happy to state, that the advice I gave her was not thrown away, as I never knew the child guilty of saying a bad word afterwards; and the mother soon brought me another child, of two years and a half old, and said she should be very glad if I would take it into the school, and that she wished a blessing might always attend the gentlemen who supported the institution.  She also requested me to take an opportunity of speaking a few words to her husband, for she was thankful for what had been said to her.  And here I would observe, that although it is most undoubtedly true, that the good taught to children in our infant schools is greatly counteracted by the conduct they witness on their return home, yet we occasionally see, that these little children, by the blessing of God, are made the means of reforming their own parents.  What a gratifying fact it is, that the adult and hardened sinner, may be turned from his evil ways—­from death unto life—­by an infant’s precept or example!

Nor is it only in profane expressions that we see the influence of evil.  Some children I have known, in the same neighbourhood, who even beat their parents.  There was a poor widow, very near the school, who was frequently to be seen with her face dreadfully bruised by blows from her own son.  He had been taken before a magistrate, and imprisoned for three months, but it did him no good, for he afterwards beat his mother as much as ever, and the poor woman had it in contemplation to get the miscreant sent out of the country.  One Sunday, I remember to have seen a boy, under twelve years of age, take up a large stone to throw at his mother:  he had done something wrong in the house, and the mother followed him into the street with a small cane, to correct him for it; but he told his mother, that if she dared to approach him, he would knock her down.  The mother retired, and the boy went where he pleased.  These and many similar scenes I have witnessed; and I am afraid that many such characters have been so completely formed as to be past reformation.  So essential is it, to embrace the first opportunity of impressing on the infant mind the principles of duty and virtue.

I am aware that many excellent institutions are in existence for the spread of the gospel amongst the ignorant and depraved at home as well as abroad; but I must here again advert to the readier reception of religious truths in infancy, than by the adult and confirmed sinner.  I would not say to those who are engaged in the painful task—­painful because so often unsuccessful—­forego your labours; but I would call upon all who have at heart the everlasting welfare of the souls of men, to exert themselves, that the rising generation may not likewise grow up into that state of perverseness—­that they may not in future years prove themselves to be a generation, which, “like the adder, turneth a deaf ear to the charmer, charm he ever so wisely.”  I am satisfied, from the experience I have had, that an amount of good is attainable from early and judicious culture, which far, very far surpasses all that has heretofore been accomplished; and on which not a few are even unprepared to calculate.