Year: 1860

Bun, Blossom AND FRUIT.-A care
fol study Of the lava OF external nature, and
especially in the vegetable kingdom. presents
TO the observer an inAexble law Of cause and
consequence, governing the whole economy Of
material things. We see the acorn drop from
the lofty branch Of the sturdy oak. upon the
naked earth. while a1tumnal leaves cover t
from the sight. where it generates. puts forth q
tender shoot. and year by year gains stature
and strength, and becomes majestic oak. sim
liar to its parent. II no exceptional causes dis
turb its annual Developer ent. 1t must have
moisture or it becomes knotted. knaried and
crooked bramble. worthless and unsightly. 1t
must have depth and richness Of soil, or it will
grow up deformed and fit only for fuel


Such are the laws governing the inner being
Of man. The immortal spirit seed will grow
from bud to blossom, and from blossom to
fruit. With every moral and intellectual faculty
fully enlarged. with healthy and vigorous de.
velopsment, presenting one Of the noblest
types Of moral beauty that angels and men can
behold, If the bud is carefully watched and
protected from the poisonous stings Of the
insects of vice. pollution and crime. during the
early period of its development. The fruit
will be more luscious than gold or precious
stones


The mind of the little child must have
healthy. moral nourishment or the full grown
man will possess soul perverted and crooked.
bearing bitter fruit to poison the souls of those
who come within the circle OF his influence
No after culture will straighten the limb, of
the knArled oak. neither will the mind Of .
man be entirely freed from the scars and de.
formities produced by youth Of vice and neg
lect.


Parents give little heed to the training Of
their offspring. when considering the import
ancs of the effect of neglect upon their minds
A man of business becomes 90 entirely ab-
sorbed in his schemes Of trade. that he gives
little heed to the training of those little ones
whose future life Is 80 entirely moulded by
the Influences surrounding them in the days Of
childhood While he is posting up his ledger
accounts or calculating the precise amount of
his gains. and the portion he will be enabled to
leave each one OF his children, those children
may be drinking in moral pollution in the bar
room, or with dissolute associates, that will
make them idle. vicious and degraded vaga-
bonds and spendthrifts, with minds hopelessly
perverted by evil associations and parental
neglect. As 10 the bud and blossom go will be
the fruit of all minds. The law of cause and
effect will praaent the unerr'ng consequences
Of good or evil. just as good or evi, influence.
act upon and mould the youthful mind.
1t is Of far greater consequence that parents
should present to s,ciety sons and daughters,
at thei- majority, with manly. moral and vir.
tuous characters. poor and penniless, than to
present those soma and daughters ignorant. vi
cious and depraved, with the wealth of Cr~sus.


Here in Davenport We have many Of those
sinks of pollution. which have peculiar charm
for young men and boys Of weak minds and
neglected educations Thither they bend their
footsteps every night. and it is seldom that
they leave without being more or less intoxj-
Gated. We conjure parents to keep more
careful watch over their children or they may
some day have to weep over them in prison
and on the scaffold.