would win confidence to ourselves, we must put confidence in
others. The soul is like a mirror, reflecting that which stands
before it.

The young naturally take on the moods and accept and reflect the
influences around them more readily than the old, just as a new
piece of land will produce a better crop than one which is worn or
pre-occupied. A virgin mind is like a virgin soil. It contains all
the elements of fertility, and is adapted to the production of any
crop. It has been exhausted in no department of its constitution.
It is not occupied by roots, and shaded by foliage. It is not
turf-bound and dry; but it is soft and open, and clean and moist,
and ready for the reception of any seed that may fall upon it.
Until age brings individuality, the mind seems to have little
choice as to what it will receive. Then, indeed, it does reject
much seed that falls upon it, and much fails to take root because
of the pre-occupation of the surface. A sensual seed is planted in
the soul of a young man, and it springs up readily, and produces
after its kind; but the same seed tossed upon an older soil fails
to sink and germinate, because the surface is pre-occupied, or,
more frequently, because that peculiar element on which the germ
must rely for quickening and sustentation has been exhausted. Some
manly or Christian grace falls upon a young mind, and quickly
strikes root and rises into flower and fruit; while the same grace
thrown upon an adult mind would fail to reach the soil, through
the vices that cumber and choke it. It is thus that home and the
school-room are literally seminaries--places where seed is sown--
and it is in these that we expect and intend that every seed shall
produce after its kind. Let us talk about this a little.