, which go to make up the lives of most men, are, as they
are usually estimated, comparatively unimportant and trivial; and
yet, that all these events and transactions contribute, in a greater
or less degree, to the formation of character; and that on moral
character are suspended, essentially, our usefulness and happiness in
time, and our well-being in eternity.

"I then remarked, that I could not doubt, but, on sober reflection,
many of that assembly would find that they owed the complexion of a
great portion of their lives, and their unhappy situation as tenants
of the state prison, to some event or transaction comparatively
trivial, and of which, at the time, they thought very little. I
requested them to make the examination, and see whether the remark I
had made was not correct.

"This was on the Sabbath. The next morning; one of the prisoners, an
interesting young man, came to me, and observed, that he should be
glad to have some conversation with me, whenever I should find it
convenient. Accordingly, in the afternoon of the same day, I sent for
him. On his being seated, and my requesting him to state freely what
he wished to say, he remarked, 'that he wished to let me know how
peculiarly appropriate to his case were the observations I had made,
the previous day, on the influence of little things; and if I would
permit him, he would give me a brief sketch of his history; and,
particularly, of the transaction, which, almost in childhood, had
given a disastrous coloring to the whole period of his youth, and, in
the result, had brought him to be an occupant of his present dreary
abode.'

"It appears, from the sketch which he gave, that he was about ten
years of age, when his father moved from a distant part of the state
to a town in the vicinity of Boston. In this town was a respectable
boarding-school, not a great distance from the residence of his
father; and to this school he was sent. Having always lived in the
country, he had seen very few of those novelties, and parades, and
shows, which are so common in and near the city; and it is not
wonderful, that, when they occurred, he should, like most children,
feel a strong desire to witness them.

"Before he had been long at school, he heard there was to be a
"Cattle Show" at Brighton. He had never seen a Cattle Show. He
presumed it must be a very interesting spectacle, and felt a very
strong desire to attend. This desire, on the morning of the first day
of the