nation see the
unfortunate creatures bowed under an insupportable yoke, doomed to
constant labor like so many galley-slaves, without any certainty that
all this toil will ever be of use to them! The years that ought to be
bright and cheerful are passed in tears amid punishments, threats, and
slavery. For his own good, the unhappy child is tortured; and the
death thus summoned will seize on him unperceived amidst all this
melancholy preparation. Who knows how many children die on account of
the extravagant prudence of a father or of a teacher? Happy in
escaping his cruelty, it gives them one advantage; they leave without
regret a life which they know only from its darker side.[2]

O men, be humane! it is your highest duty; be humane to all conditions
of men, to every age, to everything not alien to mankind. What higher
wisdom is there for you than humanity? Love childhood; encourage its
sports, its pleasures, its lovable instincts. Who among us has not at
times looked back with regret to the age when a smile was continually
on our lips, when the soul was always at peace? Why should we rob
these little innocent creatures of the enjoyment of a time so brief, so
transient, of a boon so precious, which they cannot misuse? Why will
you fill with bitterness and sorrow these fleeting years which can no
more return to them than to you? Do you know, you fathers, the moment
when death awaits your children? Do not store up for yourselves
remorse, by taking from them the brief moments nature has given them.
As soon as they can appreciate the delights of existence, let them
enjoy it. At whatever hour God may call them, let them not die without
having tasted life at all.

You answer, "It is the time to correct the evil tendencies of the human
heart. In childhood, when sufferings are less keenly felt, they ought
to be multiplied, so that fewer of them will have to be encountered
during the age of reason." But who has told you that it is your
province to make this arrangement, and that all these fine
instructions, with which you burden the tender mind of a child, will
not one day be more pernicious than useful to him? Who assures you
that you spare him anything when you deal him afflictions with so
lavish a hand? Why do you cause him more unhappiness than he can bear,
when you are not sure that the future will compensate him for these
present evils? And how can you prove that the evil tendencies of which
you pretend t