around you, and it lies very low!

I am assuming in these sketches no office of a teacher. I am seeking
only to make a truthful analysis of the boyish thought and feeling. But
having ventured thus far into what may seem sacred ground, I shall
venture still farther, and clinch my matter with a moral.

There is very much religious teaching, even in so good a country as New
England, which is far too harsh, too dry, too cold for the heart of a
boy. Long sermons, doctrinal precepts, and such tediously-worded dogmas
as were uttered by those honest but hard-spoken men, the Westminster
Divines, fatigue, and puzzle, and dispirit him.

They may be well enough for those strong souls which strengthen by
task-work, or for those mature people whose iron habit of self-denial
has made patience a cardinal virtue; but they fall (_experto crede_)
upon the unfledged faculties of the boy like a winter's rain upon spring
flowers,--like hammers of iron upon lithe timber. They may make deep
impression upon his moral nature, but there is great danger of a sad
rebound.

Is it absurd to suppose that some adaptation is desirable? And might not
the teachings of that Religion, which is the ægis of our moral being, be
inwrought with some of those finer harmonies of speech and form which
were given to wise ends,--and lure the boyish soul by something akin to
that gentleness which belonged to the Nazarene Teacher, and which
provided not only meat for men, but "milk for babes"?