horities, of all men towards God, their Supreme Master, and just
Rewarder of good and evil. Moreover, it is the Christian religion alone
that affords men the means to obtain God's grace, which enlightens the
mind to see the beauty of virtue, inflames the heart with love for it,
and inclines the will to practise it with perseverance. If we then wish
to be sure of having a virtuous and virile people, we must Christianize
our youth, especially during their school hours; we must bring up our
children in a religious atmosphere. I have already remarked that
religion may be compared to leaven. As leaven must be diffused
throughout the entire mass in order to produce its effects, so the
Christian religion must be thoroughly diffused throughout the child's
entire education, in order to be solid and effective.

Not a moment of the hours of school should be left without religious
influence. It is the constant breathing of the air that preserves our
bodily life, and it is the constant dwelling in a religious atmosphere
that preserves the life of the youthful soul. Religion is not a study,
or an exercise that may be restricted to a certain place, or a certain
hour. It is a faith and a law which ought to be felt everywhere, and
which in this manner alone can exercise all its beneficent influence
upon our minds and lives. It will never do to suffer the child to devote
six days in the week to worldly science, and to depend on Sunday for a
religious training. This would be like reserving the salt which should
season our food during the week, and taking it all in a dose on Sunday.
By such a system we may make expert shop-boys, first-rate accountants,
shrewd and thriving "earth-worms"; but it would be presumption to think
of thus making good citizens, still less virtuous Christians.

Let us be assured that our young men know their duties to God, to their
neighbors, and to themselves, and they will then, but not till then, be
true Christians. In being true Christians they will be dutiful sons,
faithful husbands, affectionate fathers, gentle masters, honest
servants, law-loving and law-abiding citizens, true statesmen, good
soldiers, and valiant defenders of the country, chaste and sober
companions, the joy of God and of society.

But, above all, let us be assured that our daughters are educated as
women, not as men. Women are not needed as men; they are needed as
women: to do, not what men can do as well as they, but what men cannot
do.