Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1843-08-12

tence, without form or fashion, soul O sem
sibiIily: and had not nature bundled Us up
into babies, and left US on the Threshold
of being 70 soak, swell up and ge rminate,
we shouldn't have been here at all. How
ever, much as some Of you, my worthy
friends, may despise babies, you Fought to
bear in mind that they are young and ten
der plants, ia the nursery Of the world,
which requires to be cultivated with the
utmost care, and which are yet TO bud,
blossom, and perhaps yield as good fruit
as can be gathered from those trees Of
wisdom and experience which grow in
your own mental orchards, and OF which
you are as proud as q ragamufin with q
ruffle shirt.
My friends-because you are no longer
children, and have put away all childish
things, it is by no means becoming for you
to turn up your nose at the petticoats Of in
faAcy, which you shook off by the way
side, on your journeys to mat rity. You
were all babies once; and not a few OF
you are boobies now. 1t didn't cost you,
indivi dually speaking. red cent TO ebe
born. You had free ticket OF admission
into the great theatre Of the woodland
when the farces, comedies and Tragedies
Of life are over, you must all go home,
and retire to your separate beds in the
dark chambers of the tomb. When you
were babies, you put your mothers TO as
much trouble ss DO these little effects of
matrimony with which they are surround
ed. You fretied, worried and cried, appa-
ren;ly merely for the sake of the music.
You crept into mischief, and afterwards
bedaubed your frocks with the unwash-
outable stains Of vice; and when your legs
first began TO perform their distined Off
ces, you ran down the dirty lane OF self
qualification, and began TO paddle in the
putrid pool Of impurity.
My hearers-if we are annoyed with
the cries Of creepings and cravings of
The babies, it is no fault Of theirs. They
we're showed into existence without any
soil citation on their parts, and Nature
alone is responsible, for all their errors
The poor babe, like an unfortunate sailor,
is shipwrecked on the barren shore Of the
world, naked, helpless nd hungry. 1t is
here rocked for time in the cradle OF
tenderness and nursed at The bosom OF
1t creeps carelessly about on
he edge Of existence, and oftentlmes
escapes falling back into eterni-
y. 1t gradually gains strength TO walk,
md goes out to play in the blooming
garden of childhood, with bliss in its
leart, and butter in its hands. II there
gathers some OF the prettiest posies that
grow between the cradle and the grave:
he roses of joy-the violets Of virtue
he daises Of delight-and the hare bells
of hope. Anon he becomes the way
ward boy. He scampers over the fields
IF youth, where the flowers of virtue
Ind the pernicious plants Of vice grow
ogether, which he plucks ind iscrimlnate-
y. Then he wanders on thro' manhood
lp the hill Of honor and ambition, and
lownthe steep Of degradation and des-
,ondency--gets scratched with the thorns
# care, as he gathers the fruit of wis
lom and experimentation he declines
nto the childhood Of age; and finally
,oes out Of the world bigger baby than
when he came into it.
My dear friends if some Of US could on
v have known beforehand what woes
we're lying in wait to greet our entsrance
nto this ring streaked, spotted and speck-
ed world, we should have chosen TO re-
main forever curled up in the middle oil
rather than come here TO be
logged by fortune, and sent back to bed
,hirtless. But my friends, babies are ne
,essary evils, and we couldn't well do
Without them. They are small but inn
,ortant matters, and worthy Of no incon-
siderable share Of attention.-tor my
,wn part, | am fond Of such sweet bitters
IS babies-and the more spunk and splr-
/ they exhibit the better like them
or was a baby myself; and if squalling
Dc indicative Of future eloquence, then
he power OF preaching was in me from
he beginning.
NV respected hearers-tender infants
IS you have all once been, you must not
uppose that as you grow old you tough.
N sufficiently as to cause the shaft OF
Death to fall harmless at your feet
The thin easement that encloses the inn
Mortal spirit Of man is as brittle as a
lass; and gentle rap Of disease, il it
oes not entirely demolish 1t, may SO
halter It that all the medicated putty in
he universe can't hold it together. The
threads that are woven in the
web Of mans mortal existence are so
inely spun and so feeble in strength, that
he slightest breeze Of physical affection
will sometimes snap them asunder and Is
cave them dangling in the dusky sePul.
hre, like SO many cobwebs in the cor l.
Ter ola deserted hovel. L
My dear brethren--take good care of
our babies, all you who have them; for
here IL no knowing what figures theyle
xyaA a. - aCh L,