Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-03-31

1t lies passive, like clay, to be moulded as they
will. They may write upon its unsullicd page
the absurdities of idolatry, and it will grow up
heather; or, they may teach it in the errors
of Muhomct, and it will grow up Mahometan
or, they may inspire it with false notions of re-
ligion, and it win become an infdcl; or. they
may train it in the way it should co. and it will
become a humble Clristian.
1t is the rule of travellers that he who first
| puts foot upon new found land may name it,
and that his sovereign shall own it. So who
ever first enters upon the twilight realm Of the
child's mind may rule over it, God has grant
cd this privilege to the parent, as the dScovercr
and as the governor of the little child None
/ can be supposed to love it as its parents do
and love is the only good schoolmastcr in this
world. Generally men give, expecting to re-
ceivc again. They help their fellow men, that
in turn they may be aided. They labor for re-
muneration-for some equivalent. Now, if a
child be cast out upon such world as this,
what can it repay for long care, but tears, and
smiles, and trouble? A child-what has it ex-
cept love, with which TO repay those who min
lister to its wants? Only parents will give the
required care, when most needed, for the sake
of the love which they bear to the child. 1t is
IN some sense a toll to take care of little chill
drcn; but it is a toll which love would not fore
go. If there is one thing which true parents
ers the care of their children. Wonderful, di-
vine instincts strange store of tenderness, rear
ed in the heart to be expressed at the time when
they most need it toward them that would die
without it
The root of the world is sefshness the root
of the family is love. If children be put upon
the world, they will of necessity be neglected,
or abused, or mistaught, or trained for inter
ested purposes. And in the hurly- y-burly of this
busy world, not one in hundred could hope to
rise safely. The family is the place of refuge
Here love takes care of children, love cducates
them, love dsciplines them in experience to
prosper in this life and in the life to come.
I 1t is impossible, as a general rule, to bring
up children rightly under any other influence
than that of parental love. Nothing but the
sun will draw forth vegetation from the earth
and nothing but love can fifty develop the mind
in infancy. God has laid in material for this
affection abundantly; and the mother is not
more admirably formed to nourish the infant
body by her own, than to nourish its heart by
her heart. Its soul feeds at her heart as much
as its body at her bosom-and with this differ
ence, that the child is never weaned from its
sou-breast. And in proportion as this law is
vlolated-ir proportion as children, in times Of
war, by orphanage, in barbarous nations, or in
philosophical experiments of absurdity, are
thrown out of the family-they grow up wild
and waste.
The last step of infdel fanaticism, is that
which undertakes to break up the family state,
and puts out children to be reared as they may,
by experiment. under some public patent pro-
cess. Men speak of Lacedrmonian customs.
when children were taken from parents and
reared at the public expense, and urge us to
copy this pattern. But what was the sole end
of such an education? Not refinement, not
progress in arts, not morality not intelligence,
certainly not civility; but war, and only war.
The laws, the whole shape of society," were for
one simple purpose, among that peope-to
make warriors, the utmost muscular hardness,
the least moral scruple, the most brute and
manual skill. These alone were aimed at
This people sought to make men warriors, and
only warriors and to do it, they made them
as near to beasts of prey as possible. The cum
ming OF the fox the strength of the lion, the
endurance Of the bear, the swiftness of the ca
gle, the courage of the mastif, the bloodthirsti-
ness of the tiger-thesc were the attainments
of that warlike people. Nothing which should
impede or abate such qualities, was allowed by
them. Is that the pattern upon which we are
to educate our children? God says, "Let par
ents train up their children Infdcl wisdom
says, "Let the public train them up for them
let them be gathered in some common building
let nurses be hired to impart nourshment to
them; let masters be sought to instruct them"
But where, let me ask, shall YOU hire those that
are to love them? You can buy their food, you
can hire their raiment made. and YOU can hire
nurses and inrtructors for them; but can YOU
hire love for them? The fair the Iosv the
forward child will win some favor, and some
love; but who shall take care of the poor child
that is sickly that is deformed. that is sore, that
is haggard and hideous needing the most help,
but attracting the least? y parent cares most
for the child that needs most hirelng cares
most for the child that needs least, and is most
engaging.
What thought-to break up the nests of
parental love; to snatch from the mother her
hali-weaned child; to bear this weeping wretch
to the town magazine of children, to be rubbed,
and washed, and fed, and whipped, at so much
head by cheap hirelings, to be loved by dol
lars and cents worth; to be taught religion
and virtue at so much apiece Every step of
the plan is horribly unnatural. 1t begins bv
breaking up marriage, and turning men out as
beasts roam, without mate. 1t proposes to col
lcct the offspring of this system with even less
care than farmer would gather his lambs or
calves. And it completes the work by attempt
ing to rear generation Of children, not by
those who love them most, but by those that
care nothing about them in particular-that on
ly do what they do for them as they do any
other hired work.
You will naturally ask me whether orphan
asylums are to be condemned whether houses
Of refuge for the neglected children of the city,
such as that at llandals Island, and schools for
the reformation of vicious children, such as
those that exist at the Five Points in New York,
and in many neighboring cities, are to be con-
demned. My reply is, that when Gods natural
training institution is taken away, we must avail
ourselves of the next best means of training
we can and that all these institutions of char
ity, as compared with abandonment and neg
lect, are benefcent, and even radiant They
are artificial families where the child receives,
not what it would receive at the hands of kind
and virtuous parents, but thousand times
more than it would have received if it had been
left to roam without any care at all. But they
are not to be compared with virtuous family.
Nothing makes the family seem so blessed and
these places so poor, as such comparison.
One of the most painful things | ever do is
to see group of orphan children. The most
painful exhibitions have Witnessed in my life,
have been sweet sights of children from Ran
doll's Island and at Mr. Pease's House of In
dustry at the Five Points. ] never had my
.l,,l en-