I say beautiful! and are not the budding faculties of childhood both beautiful and lovely?
"Feed my lambs," saith the Lord Jesus.

But, reader, are they all duly fed in this rich, wealthy, and christian country?
How many, on the contrary, are fed with evil influences, street associations, and are thus poisoned at every pore, until their being is thoroughly contaminated through neglect, public and private, and, when not orphans, even parental neglect also; and then after having increased our county rates, enlarged our prisons, and built union workhouses (with respect to morals and training for the young, I say pest-houses) we add ragged schools.

We allow them to become contaminated, and when that is accomplished, we go to work to undo what has been done.

If this does not succeed we punish by law the poor neglected beings for taking the poisons we really offered them! Oh, rare consistency in this boasted age of light, and science, and learning! Let us, therefore, first seek an education worthy of the name, and then find the best means of carrying it out.

What exists at present is fundamentally defective, especially by beginning too late, and as regards the plans and principles laid down for infants in many cases, much has been merely travestied, and many of the most essential parts entirely set aside or overlooked.
The amount of solid information that may be given to an infant by a wise and judicious mother, during the first two years only, would appear to many persons astonishing.