s a body in comfortable and
independent circumstances, might easily remedy the evil. Does not a man,
who devotes his time to the instruction of youth, deserve to be made as
comfortable as the man who sells silver utensils, or bracelets, or
ear-rings, or other articles of trade? Is there any comparison between
the moral usefulness of these? Is there any profession more useful than
that which forms the youthful mind? or rather, is it not the most
important profession in the state?[52]

[Footnote 52: It is but justice to the Quakers to observe, that they are
taking more pains than formerly in the promotion of this object. I am
told that there are more private seminaries now kept by Quakers for the
education of the youth of their own society, than even before the
institution of Ackworth school.]

With respect to the education which is acquired in the society itself,
the remedy is not difficult. This education was shewn to be of two
kinds.

On that part of it, which is moral or religious, I may observe, that the
remedy is in the parents themselves. The first thing to be recommended
is an universal vigilance over the disposition and manners of children,
so that no censurable appearance, whether in temper or in conduct, may
be allowed to pass without suitable notice or reproof, or that the bud,
which promises to be corruptive of morals, should no sooner make its
appearance, than it should be cut off. In cases of so much importance,
as where the happiness both of parents and children is concerned, the
former should be peculiarly circumspect. They should not talk about
things, but insist upon them, on all proper occasions. They should not
point out, but redress. They should not lop off the branches, but lay
the axe to the root. And surely youth is the best season for such
wholesome interference. It is, in the first place, the season in which
a remedy is practicable; for we are assured, "if we train up a child in
the way he should go, that, when he is old, he will not depart from it."
It is, secondly, the season in which it is most practicable; for can we
hope to bend the tree so easily to our form, as the sapling from whence
it came? and, thirdly, it is the season in which it is practicable only,
for will not a small irregularity grow, if uncontrolled, to a greater?
Will not one irregularity also, if not properly checked, give birth to
others? And may not these be so incorporated into the inner man in a
course of time, that i