Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1818-11-24
MISCELLANY.
From the Connecticut Courant.
THE BRIEF REMARKER.

Our life is beset with perils at every
step, but no period of it is perhaps quite SO
1 perilous as that in which the boy is step
ping into manhood. Then it is that his
ceiling is fervid, his hope vivid, and his
sefconfdence at the highest. Then ii is
That he listens with most rapture to the
yeice OF the aifcn, that his heart is most
susceptible tothe alurements of pleasure !:
End it is then that he spurns alike the
3rammels of restraint and the counsels of
Friendship.
Untaught by experience, he despises
The experience of others wise in his own
\ Conceit, he scorns the montions of age aud
ripper judgment; full of himself, he feels
mo need Of direction or advisement, and
regards it as an insult TO his understanding.
He feels sentiment of Indignation and
disdain toward those who should presume
teach him how to behave. His sense is
Deceived, his soul is 10 dream, he is
fully confident that he sees things clearly,
and yet he sees them in false mirror, ex-
actly such as they are not"
Nor is it always the youths of the least
promise that are in the most danger. So
I FAR otherwise. those of forward parts, of
lively imaginations, and of strong passions
Withal, are 10 peculiar hazard during those
green years 10 which is the critical period
Of transition from the condition of boys TO
That of men. The very qualities that dis
anguish them and set them above their
Fellows, diminish the likelihood of their
Establishing sober staidness of character,
and ofttimes are the means of launching
Them into the whirlpool of dissipation,
where all is fost; where reputation, morals,
aud whatever is eslimabIe in human be-
ing are all ingulphed together.
How many instances do the perilous
times we live in furnsih--how many de-
plorabie instances Of hopeful boys aban-
doned and lost ere they were out Of their
teens And by how much The more their
parents had dotted upon them, by SO much
( the more are their hearts wrung with an
guish.
l Far less is the danger for the most part,
while the immature youth remains under
the parental roof, or in " the wellordered
home" There he finds it not SO easy to
Shake off salutary restraints, there he
must needs feel some respect for the opin-
ion of the society in whose bosom he was
born and educated, some reverence Of pa
rental authority, and some regard to the
Feelings of near kindred. But when he
\ leaves the haven of home, aud is pushed
off into the stream of life, it is more than
Ian even chance that he will founder in the
stream if he has not previously been under
the governance of moral and religious
principle. In his new situation, it often
happens that he finds new enticements to
lead him astray, and at the same time he
sfeels himself loosened from the authority
and influence which had heretofore re-
4 pressed his hayward propensities ; and il
vicious, but genteel and artful, companions,
get the first hold Oh him, his ruin is in all
probability sealed.
n 1t was 10 clear view Of these affecting
n circumstances that the celestial poet,
Cowper, penned the following lines:
envy boy, the unwelcome hour is come,
a When thou, transplanted from thy genial home,
Must find colder soil and bleaker air,
a And trust for safety to a strangers care
1t is hard to mourn over the death, but
ii is sometimes still harder TO mourn over
the life Of a beloved child. When they
see the one whom they had expected
& would be found the solace Of their age, the
honour Of their family, and 40 ornament to
society--when they see him, at the instant
of their highest hopes, turn to the ways
q of folly no heart but heart thus exer-
cised, can conceive the sharpness OF the
pang. This is sorrow indeed; and the
best that parents can do to prevent it, or
4 rather all they can do, is to lay themselves
n out in good earnest TO train up their chill
dren in the way they should 60.
Good education is the thing in the world