he
little wretches might be _kilcrops_.[15] Yet, possibly, (it has since
occurred to me,) even these children of the fiend, as they seemed, might
have one chord in their horrible natures that answered to the call of some
sublime purpose. There is a mimic instance of this kind, often found
amongst ourselves in natures that are not really "horrible," but which
_seem_ such to persons viewing them from a station not sufficiently
central:--Always there are mischievous boys in a neighbourhood, boys who
tie canisters to the tails of cats belonging to ladies--a thing which
_greatly_ I disapprove; and who rob orchards--a thing which _slightly_ I
disapprove; and behold! the next day, on meeting the injured ladies, they
say to me, "Oh, my dear friend, never pretend to argue for him! This boy,
we shall all see, will come to be hanged." Well, _that_ seems a
disagreeable prospect for all parties; so I change the subject; and lo!
five years later, there is an English frigate fighting with a frigate of
heavier metal, (no matter of what nation.) The noble captain has
manoeuvred, as only _his_ countrymen can manoeuvre; he has delivered
his broadsides, as only the proud islanders can deliver them. Suddenly he
sees the opening for a _coup-de-main_; through his speaking-trumpet he
shouts--"_Where are my boarders?_" And instantly rise upon the deck, with
the gaiety of boyhood, in white shirt sleeves bound with black ribands,
fifty men, the _elite_ of the crew; and behold! at the very head of them,
cutlass in hand, is our friend the tyer of canisters to the tails of
ladies' cats--a thing which _greatly_ I disapprove, and also the robber of
orchards--a thing which _slightly_ I disapprove. But here is a man that
will not suffer you either greatly or slightly to disapprove him. Fire
celestial burns in his eye; his nation, his glorious nation, is in his
mind; himself he regards no more than the life of a cat, or the ruin of a
canister. On the deck of the enemy he throws himself with rapture, and if
_he_ is amongst the killed, if he for an object so gloriously unselfish
lays down with joy his life and glittering youth, mark this--that,
perhaps, he will not be the least in heaven.

But coming back to the case of childhood, I maintain steadfastly--that,
into all the _elementary_ feelings of man, children look with more
searching gaze than adults. My opinion is, that where circumstances
favour, where the heart is deep, where humility and tenderness ex