the patriot and philanthropist, but especially the Christian, to look
around, to think and to consider what effectual means may be found,
and what efficient plans may be adopted to strike the evil fatally at
its roots, and cause it to wither away. If these things be not done,
the moral pestilence must increase, and eventually deprive us of all
that is dear to us as men, and citizens.




CHAPTER III.

CAUSES OF EARLY CRIME.

_Degraded condition of parents--Dreadful effects of
drunkenness--Neglect of children inevitable and wilful--The tutorship
of wicked companions--Tricks of pantomimes injurious--Mischiefs
arising from sending children to pawnbrokers--Fairs demoralizing--All
Kinds of begging to be repressed_.

* * * * *

"Why thus surprised to see the infant race
Treading the paths of vice? Their eyes can trace
Their _parents_' footsteps in the way they go:
What shame, what fear, then, can their young hearts know?"

* * * * *