lso
to human society, subjecting her to expenditure and corruption in the
support and influence of paupers and criminals. Every child should learn
some trade or profession in order to self-subsistence and to the prosperity
and well-being of the state.

Hence it is a breach of moral obligation for parents, whether rich or
poor, to permit their children to grow up in idleness and vagrancy. If they
do so, and as a consequence, drag out an impoverished and miserable
existence, struggling between the importunities of want and those
precarious contingencies upon which its satisfaction is suspended; and in
the hour of despair and urgent necessity, they resort to crime in order to
meet their wants, or to dissipation in order to avert their wretchedness
for a time, is it not plain that their parents are responsible to God for
all their crime and misery?

Nothing will, therefore, justify them in their omission of this duty. No
amount of inherited wealth; no dependence upon wealthy relatives; no
honorable station in society, will excuse them from training up their
children to some useful employment by which, if circumstances demand, they
may secure a subsistence. And even if their legacy render it unnecessary to
be followed in order to subsistence, it is a duty which is due to the
state. No man can with impunity live in the state without some employment.
This would be an infringement upon her rights and an abuse of her
privileges. The individual, with all his wealth and talents, belongs to the
state, and should, therefore, make such an appropriation of these as will
be most conducive to its welfare.

And besides, we know not what disastrous changes may take place in life.
The parental legacy may soon be squandered by the child, and he be left
without funds or friends; the emergencies of the future may increase
beyond all anticipation; sickness and manifold adversities may soon sweep
away all his inheritance. And then what will become of your child if he is
ignorant of any pursuit in which to engage for a subsistence? Besides, it
is a matter of very common observation, that those who receive a large
legacy and have been brought up in idleness, become prodigal in their
expenditure, and squander their fortune by dissipation more rapidly than
their parents amassed it by industry and frugality; and then, ignorant and
helpless and profligate, they eke out a wretched existence in abject
poverty, resorting to illegitimate means for a li