Democratic banner., 1846-10-05
GOD BLESS THE BABIES!-Mrs.

AnfSeed pIucHeu me SifaWI asloe, anu us
covered sleeping infant-"what a heav-
emily babel" she cried, and truly, the child
in its marble Wilderness looked beautiful
a lovely human bud-a sweet unsulliod So
~iourner of earth; Graded on the knees Of
vice.
For an instant the Waterman gazed in s-
lence on the babe . Even their natures,
hardened in scenes of vice und destitution,
were touched by the appealing innocence
of the child. "PUor little heart!' said one.
"God help,it" cried another.
eyes, God help it," And with such es-
sy adiuratioE do we leave thousands and
tens ofIthousandS Of human souls to want
and ignorance; doom them, when yet sleep
ing the sleep Of guiltlessness, to future de.
Wis their own unguarded passions. We
make them outcasts, wrecthes, and then
punish, in wickedness our own s~el6shness,
our own neglect. We cry--"God help the
babes!" and-hang the men.
Yet a m~cment-the child is still before
us. May we not see about it, c~ontending
for it, the principles of good and evil? q
contest between the angels aud the
fends? Come hither statesman; you who
nightly fight some miserable fight, continual
ly s~tIivsin some selfish struggle for power
and place, considering men only as tools.
the merest instruments of your a~ggrandize-
mont; eome here in the wintry street, and
look on Gods image in its babyhood.
Consider this little man. Are not crea-
lures such as these the noblest, grandest
things on earth?--Have they not solemn ma
lures? Are they not subtly touched for the
highest purposes of human life? Come they
notinto this world to dignity it? There is
no spot, nj coarse stuff in the pauper flesh
before you that indicates a lower nature.
There Is no felon mark upon it; no natural
formation indicating the theft in its baby
fingers, nj inevitable blasphemy upon its
lips. It lies before you q fair unsullied thing
fresh from the hand of God! you, without
an effort, let the great fend stamp his f.
cry brand upon it! Shall it, even in its
sleeping innocence, be made a trading
thing by misery andIvice1A. crestureiborne
from the street. . piece of living merchan-
disc for mingled beggarry and crime-say,
what with its awakened soul, shall it learn?
What lessons whereby to pass through life,
making an item in the social sum? Why,
cunning will be its wisdom; hypocrisy its
truth; theft its natural law of self preseva.
ton. To this chLld so nutured. so taught,
your whole code of moral, nay, your brief
right and wrong, are written in
stranger 6guresthan Egyptian hieroglyphics
and time passes-and you scourge the crea-
ture, never taught, for the heinous guilt
Of knowing but all! The good has been a
sealed book to him, and the Ounce is punish
ed with the frail.
Doubtless there are great statesmen; wiz
ards in bullion and bank paper, thinkers
profound In cotton, and every turn and va
rieties in the msrkets,a broad and at home.
But there are statesmen yet to Gomez; states
man Of noble aim-of more heroic action;
teachers Of the people /; indicators of the
universal dignity Of mau; apostles of the
great social truth, that knowledge which
is the spiritual light of God, like his mate
rial light, was made to comfort and bless all
men. And when these men srise-and it is
worse than weak; it is sinful to despair of
them, the youngling poor will not be bound
upon the very Threshold of human life,
and made by want and ignorance life's
shame and curse. TIL ere is not a babe
lying in the public street OH its msther's
Jap the unconscious mendicant, to ripen in
to the criminal-that is not a reproach to
the state, a scandal and a crying shame up
on man who study all politics save the
politics ofthe human hsart.-[DougIas Jer-
rold.
GOOD.-The following excellent anecdote Of