PE a8 
boy puts forth his faculties, as tender fkrubs which have been 
fheltered in their infancy fhoot out germs that defy fucceed- 
ing blafts. But if the infant have been neglected, the boy will 
be feeble, the youth enervate, the man diftempered, pufilla- 
nimous, and burdenfome to fociety. Every one knows that 
ficknefs incapacitates the mind for any lofty daring, nay often 
for any thought but that of procuring relief from bodily dif- 
trefs. What is the whole life of a valetudinarian but a long 
fit of ficknefs? 
Tue prefervation and rearing of infants fhould therefore be 
the firft objects of national care. 
Tue pens of elegant and forcible writers have been employed 
to imprefs upon the minds of women a fenfe of the amiable- 
nefs as well as virtue of fulfilling the firft duty of humanity, 
the moft interefting office of maternal love, | mean the nurfing 
of their own children. Let thefe advocates for the beft af- 
fections ftill urge their honourable caufe. Let them force a 
decent blufh into the cheek of diflipated grandeur, wring fighs: 
of remorfe from the bofom of dereliction, and harrow the foul 
of fenfibility with the fufferings of abandoned innocents. Their 
eloquence will not be wholly loft in a kingdom to which vir- 
tue has not yet bidden adieu. 
‘Bur too much room will ftill remain for the interpofition 
of national tendernefs to {natch from deftruiion the outcafts 
of fhame, hard-heartednefs, and mifery. An inftitution which 
provides 
