When parents cease to feel the influence of those high and pure
principles in which they were themselves brought up, they naturally
forget to inculcate them in the minds of their offspring. What,
then, are the guides that direct these in their progress through
life? What can they be but Self-interest, relieved perhaps
occasionally by a few touches of Good-nature?

The young women inevitably grow up mere creatures of impulse. Where
are those high qualities which are necessary to give them their
proper influence over the minds and actions of the other sex? Where
is that powerful sense of the duties of their calling and position,
that is necessary to create confidence in the breast of the lover or
the husband? Where are those unswerving principles which alone can
keep them, through trial and temptation, in the right way?

Woman, alas! has lost her power, when she ceases to inspire
veneration and command respect.

It is the interest of every colony, and the duty of every Government,
to raise the moral character and condition of the people. The
necessity of this must be forcibly present in the minds of those to
whom the duties of legislation are intrusted; and as the most obvious
means of improvement lie in the judicious instruction of the young
generation, the attention of Government must soon be directed to this
grand object.



CHAPTER 10.