Page:Letters to Mothers (1839).djvu/95

 Ghost." We must leave no place in the minds of our little ones, for the lunatic sentiment, that the mind's healthful action, and the integrity of the organs on which it operates, are secondary to the vanities of external decoration. If they have received from their Creator, a sound mind, and a sound body, convince them that they are accountable for both. If they deliberately permit injury to either, how shall they answer for it before their Judge?

And how shall the Mother answer it, in whose hand the soul of her child was laid, as a waxen tablet, if she suffer Fashion to cover it with fantastic images, and Folly to puff out her feverish breath, melting the lines that Wisdom pencilled there, till what Heaven would fain have polished for itself, loses the fair impression, and becomes like common earth.