Page:Great importance of parental instruction.pdf/9

 impenitent veteran in the ways of wickedness. Those evil passions that broke out at first into little fits of fretfulness and rage, encouraged, perhaps, with a smile on that countenance that should have awed them into silence, strengthen into pride, self-conceit, contempt of authority, and an habitual propensity to criminal pursuits. That such is the general process is a fact, alas, too strikingly corroborated by the history of mankind. This maxim is written, as it were, in large capitals, as a running title on the pages of that history,. Here then we have a general law, by which to explain many appearances of the moral world. Upon this we may fairly reason. As in the material world, we uniformly expect the same results from the same combination of circumstances; so, in the affairs of mind, we naturally conclude that the same treatment will operate the same effects. Hence a wise and pious tuition in tender years is expected to ensure, for the rest of life, a continuance in wisdom and piety: while, on the other hand, it is proved, by daily experience, that "train up a child in the way he should not go, and when he is old, he will certainly be wicked." Yes, the first impressions are the most durable. The strongest propensities are formed