Pagina 544 di 1391

Lastly, no one can have observed the first rising flood of the

passions in youth, the difficulty of regulating them, and the

effects on the whole mind and nature which follow from them, the

stimulus which is given to them by the imagination, without

feeling that there is something unsatisfactory in our method of

treating them. That the most important influence on human life

should be wholly left to chance or shrouded in mystery, and

instead of being disciplined or understood, should be required to

conform only to an external standard of propriety-cannot be

regarded by the philosopher as a safe or satisfactory condition

of human things. And still those who have the charge of youth may

find a way by watchfulness, by affection, by the manliness and

innocence of their own lives, by occasional hints, by general

admonitions which every one can apply for himself, to mitigate

this terrible evil which eats out the heart of individuals and

corrupts the moral sentiments of nations.