ill greater curiosity, instead of satisfying that which
already exists. I will not undertake to decide what ought to be done;
but _silence_, I am certain, would be far better than falsehood.

There is another error, which is laid deeper still, because it begins
earlier. I refer to the half Mohammedan practice of separating the two
sexes at school. This practice, I am aware has strong advocates; but it
seems to me they cannot have watched closely the early operations of
their own minds, and observed how curiosity was awakened, and wanton
imaginations fostered by distance, and apparent and needless reserve.

2. LICENTIOUS BOOKS, PICTURES, &C.

This unnatural reserve, and the still more unnatural falsehoods already
mentioned, prepare the youthful mind for the reception of any thing
which has the semblance of information on the points to which curiosity
is directed. And now comes the danger. The world abounds in impure
publications, which almost all children, (boys especially,) at sometime
or other, contrive to get hold of, in spite of parental vigilance. If
these books contained truth, and nothing but truth, their clandestine
circulation would do less mischief. But they generally impart very
little information which is really valuable; on the contrary they
contain much falsehood; especially when they profess to instruct on
certain important subjects. Let me repeat it then, they cannot be
relied on; and in the language of another book, on another subject; 'He
that trusteth' to them, 'is a fool.'

The same remarks might be extended, and with even more justice, to
licentious paintings and engravings, which circulate in various ways.
And I am sorry to include in this charge not a few which are publicly
exhibited for sale, in the windows of our shops. You may sometimes find
obscene pictures under cover of a watch-case or snuff box. In short,
there would often seem to be a general combination of human and
infernal efforts to render the juvenile thoughts and affections impure;
and not a few parents themselves enter into the horrible league.

On this subject Dr. Dwight remarks; 'The numbers of the poet, the
delightful melody of song, the fascination of the chisel, and the spell
of the pencil, have been all volunteered in the service of Satan for
the moral destruction of unhappy man. To finish this work of malignity
the stage has lent all its splendid apparatus of mischief; the shop has
been converted into a show-box of temptat