Many I know will be inclined to smile at the insignificancy of the cause pointed out.

I can only say, it is from such springs, however regarded, that the great stream of vice is supplied; and what we laugh at now, for its insignificant origin, will hereafter, in its maturity, laugh at us for our impotence, in vainly endeavouring to stem it.

What are parents to do with their children, situated as those are of whom we have just spoken?
And very many are so situated.

Is it possible for them to perform their duty, as protectors of their children?
It requires all their time to labour for their support, and they therefore leave them, unavoidably, either in such hands as we have described, or to take care of themselves; to range the streets, and form such associations as may there happen to fall in their way.

They get into company with older delinquents, and become first their instruments, and then their associates; till at length they find their way into a gaol.
This is no delusive way of accounting for the matter,--it is a solution which experience and observation have taught and established.
I have traced the progress of delinquency, in actual life, from its earliest stages,--from the little trembling pilferer of the apple-stall, not more than four or five years old, to the confirmed thief of nine or ten years--who had been in gaol three or four times, and was as proud of his dexterity in thieving, and hardihood under punishment, as he could have been of the most virtuous accomplishment, or the most becoming fortitude.