I would not say to those who are engaged in the painful task--painful
because so often unsuccessful--forego your labours; but I would call
upon all who have at heart the everlasting welfare of the souls of
men, to exert themselves, that the rising generation may not likewise
grow up into that state of perverseness--that they may not in future
years prove themselves to be a generation, which, "like the adder,
turneth a deaf ear to the charmer, charm he ever so wisely." I am
satisfied, from the experience I have had, that an amount of good
is attainable from early and judicious culture, which far, very far
surpasses all that has heretofore been accomplished; and on which not
a few are even unprepared to calculate.

It was a Christian-like wish expressed by King George III., that every
child in his dominions should be able to read the bible; and from the
increased facility of doing so from gratuitous education, the number
of those who cannot is much less than formerly; but in many cases the
necessitous circumstances of the parents prevent them from allowing
their children, except during their infant years, the advantage of
instruction, even though it cost them nothing. The time for the
children of the poor to receive instruction, is between the ages
of two and eight; after that period many are sent out to work, or
detained at home, for they then become useful to their parents, and
cannot be sent to school. There are many little girls who, having
left the infant school, go out to work for a shilling a week, and the
mothers have declared to me, when I have endeavoured to persuade them
to send them to the National School, for at least one year, that they
could not do it, for they were so poor, that every shilling was a
great help; they have, however, promised me that they would send them
to the Sunday school. This may account, in some measure, for there
being so many more boys than girls in almost every school in London,