he mind is given to use, not to abuse; and its abuse is no
argument against its proper use. God has given the mind, and intends it to
be developed and cultivated. If, therefore, its training has made it
indolent and dissipated, it only proves its education to be spurious. You
might, by a parity of reasoning, blindfold the eye that it might not he
covetous, or tie up the hand lest it pick a man's pocket, or hobble the
feet lest they run into evil ways, as to keep the mind in ignorance lest it
become wicked.

Besides, we find more real indolence and wickedness among the ignorant than
among the educated; for man will be educated in something. If you do not
educate your child in the truths of nature and religion, be assured he will
become trained in falsehood and in the ways of Satan. "Uneducated mind is
uneducated vice." A proper education is a divine alchemy which turns all
the baser parts of man's nature into gold. Without it all is discord and
darkness within and without. Besides, ignorance leads to misery because it
leads to wickedness. Dr. Johnson was once asked, "Who is the most miserable
man?" He replied, "That man who cannot read on a rainy day!" It has well
been said by Edmund Burke that "Education is the cheap defense of nations."
Why? Because it prevents vice, poverty, misery, and relieves the state of
the support of paupers and criminals. "A good education," says Miss
Sedgwick, "is a young man's best capital." Says Governor Everett to
parents, "Sow the seed of instruction in your son's and daughter's minds.
It will flourish when that over-arching heaven shall pass away like a
scroll, and the eternal sun which lightens it, shall set in blood." Says
the Rev. Robert Hall, "I am persuaded that the extreme profligacy,
improvidence, and misery, which are so prevalent among the laboring classes
in many countries, are chiefly to be ascribed to the want of education."

What indeed can we look for but wretchedness and guilt from that child that
has been left by its cruel parents to grow up "darkening in the deeper
ignorance of mankind, with all its jealousies, and its narrow-mindedness,
and its superstitions, and its penury of enjoyments, poor amid the
intellectual and moral riches of the universe; blind in this splendid
temple which God has lighted up, and famishing amid the profusions of
Omnipotence?" And, parents, let me ask you, if you thus neglect the proper
education of your children, and as a consequence, such paup