erism of estate,
of mind, and of morals, come upon them, will you not have to answer for all
this to God?

"Oh, woe for those who trample on the mind,
That fearful thing! They know not what they do,
Nor what they deal with!"

Your children, thus neglected, will become victims to inordinate passion,
without power to discern between reality and illusion, ignorant of what is
true happiness, living for mere sense, with their moral nature enclosed in
the iron mail of superstition, while the good seeds of truth sown upon
their hearts "wither away, because they have no depth of earth."

Parents cannot, therefore, neglect the education of their children without
incurring disgrace and guilt before God and man. They will meet a merited
retribution both here and hereafter. The justice of this is forcibly
illustrated in a law of the Icelanders, which makes the court inquire, when
a child is accursed, whether the parents have given the offender a good
education? And if not, the court inflicts the punishment on the parents.
This but expresses the higher law of God which holds parents responsible
for the training of their children. Listen to the threatening voice of God
in history. Crates, an ancient philosopher, used to say that if he could
reach the highest eminence in the city, he would make this proclamation:
"What mean ye, fellow-citizens, to be so anxious after wealth, but so
indifferent to your children's education? It is like being solicitous about
the shoe, but neglecting entirely the foot that is to wear it!"

We would reiterate that proclamation in this age of superior intelligence.
To the pious parent there is a pleasure in training the young and tender
heart for God. What a beautiful tribute did Thompson yield to this pleasure
in the following lines:

"Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast!"

But home-education, at the present day, is as much abused as it is
neglected. The criminality of the former is perhaps greater than that of
the latter. This may have more reference to the female than to the male
portion of the family. The abuse here consists of the want of a training up
to wisdom. We see this in what is called the fashionable, instead of the
Christian, education, received at some of our fashionable boarding schools.
Here t