s, with
selfish speculation in their eyes, with sadness and weariness and
trouble about many things carving the wrinkles and stealing away the
bloom; but pours in upon us a fresh stream of being that overflows our
rigid conventionalisms with the buoyancy of nature, plays into this
dusty and angular life like the jets of a fountain, like floods of
sunshine, upsets our miserable dignity, meets us with a love that
contains no deceit, a frankness that rebukes our quibbling compliments,
nourishes the poetry of the soul, and, perpetually descending from the
threshold of the Infinite, keeps open an arch-way of mystery and heaven.

And now, just consider what a child _is_--this being thus fresh from the
unknown realm, tender, plastic, dependent; a bud enfolding the boundless
possibilities of humanity, and growing rank, running to waste, or
opening in beauty, as you turn, neglect, or support it--just consider
what a child is; and he must be far gone in indifference or depravity,
who does not recognize the specific duty growing out of a general
obligation which is forced upon us by the intrinsic claims of that
child's nature. If we were appealed to by nothing else but its drooping
reliance and natural wants, there would be enough to draw our attention
to every phase of childhood that comes within our sphere.

But our purpose this evening calls us away from these brighter images of
childhood, to consider those who are surrounded with the most savage
aspects and the worst influences of the world. And, beside the absolute
duty which is imposed upon us by their natural position, I observe that
the Children of the Poor create an appeal to _prudential_
considerations. They form a large proportion of those groups known in
every city as "The _Dangerous_ Classes." For they will be developed
somehow. If they receive not that attention which is demanded by their
position; if they are left to darkness and neglect; still, it is no mere
mass of negative existence that they constitute. There is vitality there
and positive strength, in those lanes and cellars, put forth for evil if
not drawn towards the good. We must not confound ignorance with torpor
of spirit or bluntness of understanding. One of the most remarkable
characteristics of vagrant children is a keen, precocious intellect. A
boy of seven in the streets of a city is more developed in this respect
than one of fourteen in the country--a development, of course, which is
easily accounte