od. He soon becomes the practiced truant.
In a few years he arrives at manhood; but, instead of being a blessing
to his family and a useful member of society, he too frequently drags
out a wretched life, in ignorance and penury, dividing it between the
poor-house and jail, and terminating it, peradventure, upon the gallows.

It needs the pen of a ready writer duly to portray the influence of
neglected school-houses. Parents seem to have forgotten that, _while men
sleep, the enemy comes and sows tares_; that if good school-houses do
not _elevate_, neglected ones will _pollute_ their children. I have
already alluded, in the language of others, to the representations of
vulgarity and obscenity that meet the eye in every direction. But I am
constrained to add, that, during the intermissions, and before school,
"certain lewd fellows of the baser sort" sometimes lecture in the
hearing of the school generally, boys and girls, large and small,
illustrating their subject by these vulgar delineations.

But why are these things so? And how may they be remedied? Different
persons will answer these questions variously. But when we bear in mind
that, in architectural appearance, school-houses have very generally
more resembled barns, sheds for cattle, or mechanic shops, than Temples
of Science; that windows are broken; that benches are mutilated; that
desks are cut up; that wood is unprovided; that out-buildings are
neglected; that obscene images and vulgar delineations meet the eye
within and without; that, in fine, their very appearance is so
contemptible, that scholars feel themselves degraded in being obliged
to occupy them; when we bear in mind all these things, and then consider
that the impressive minds of children are necessarily and permanently
affected by scenes with which they become familiar, we can not wonder
that they yield themselves to such influences, and consent to increase
their degradation by multiplying the abominations with which they are
surrounded. And especially shall we cease to wonder at the existence of
these things, when we consider that scholars are very often unfurnished
with suitable employment; that the younger scholars are frequently urged
on by the example and influence of the older ones; and that teachers are
sometimes employed who are so far lost to shame as to countenance these
disgusting and corrupting practices by engaging in them themselves!

A knowledge of the cause suggests the remedy. Let,