How great is the necessity of good example; and did parents generally consider how apt children are to receive impressions, and to become imitators, both in their words and actions, they would be more cautious than they are.

There are many parents who make use of very bad expressions themselves, who would correct their children for using the same;--as a proof of this, I will mention one circumstance, out of many others, that took place in the school I superintended many years since.

We had a little girl there, five years old, who was so fond of the school, that she frequently stopped after the usual hours to play with my children and some others who chose to stay in the play-ground.
Many of them would stop till eight or nine o'clock at night, to which I had no objection, provided their parents approved of it, and they did not get into mischief; it being desirable to keep them out of the streets as much as possible.

It happened, however, one day, that some of the children, offended this child, and she called them by dreadful names, such as I cannot repeat; and, of course, the others were terrified, and told me of them immediately.

I was soon satisfied that the child was ignorant of the meaning of what she said, for, as an excuse for her conduct, she declared that she heard her father and mother use the same words.