From Eight To Sixteen

Th'ere ís soine virtue in the science of statistics. Lord Sbaftsbury was enabled to declare it at a publie meeting, as an asoertained faet, that for.ty-nine out of fiity of afl criminal in England, convicted in after life, cominenced their career of crime fcutween the ages of eiglit and sixteen, so that be who bas passed tlirougii 'nis sixtoenth year witliout having comraenced a life of exime against the laws of the country, in some particular or other is ahnosk or quite certain uever lo do so. This probably shows to wbat an extent crime is t!e resalt of bad paternal government aud training. When we see a youth under sixteen committing not only faults and icdulgin in vices, but already so far gone as to beeome a violator of the laws of the country, we instinctively blamo his pareuts, more than himseif, for it, and in the nine oases out of ten we are justified in so doing. His eriiue may not have been the direct result of any counsel and training of Iris parents leading liira into evil courses by thcir intention ; lut it is generally soine principie whicli the youth had seen sanctioned at home, or by those he has been taught to respect, pushed out praetically to the legitímate consequeDce of such principies. Where this is not tbc case, Ibero has, in ahuost all ÍDStauces, been an absence of that soit of restraint which might easily have kept a lad clear ot criminal associales. The Asiatic laws, which bold a niau's family guilty in part for his crimes, are therefore not so far out of the way. Certainly it would aeem as if the patenta of crimínala are at the beginning more culpable thar. the criminal themselves. It is not merely in regard to crime, but; to every species of moral deliDcjuency, including ill the vices which sap dustry, mtegrity, trutü, nonor and positive virtue of every sort, that the same principie may be applied. It is probable that between eight and sixteen the characters of most youths for good or for evil are sufficiently developed to afford an almost infallible prospeotus to their fature course. If a lad is going to prove a smoker or a drinker, a gambler, a swearer, or a cheat, he wi)l genorally have begun before he is sixteen. No doubt many who have beguo in a thousand evil ways, or waya that might have portended evil in youth of no ordinary degree, having sown their wild oats, have reformed and become the most exemplary of mankiud, but tbose who, between eight and sixteen are exemplary, are almost certain to become honorable, and distinguished uien. Manv parents, on tbis account, fall into thé sad fr.istako of trying to keep their cbildren as childish as possible, hoping thus by retarding the natural course of trial and temptation with them, to preservo them innocent, and render them virtuous through life. Yet this course more of'ten fails thao succeeds, because it is essentially artificial, untruc, and unnatural. It is a leas evil unu9ually to pusb plants forward artificially .tlian to keep them back, and so it is with men. Thoso thus retardod too often nerer ripen iuto meo at all, hut are always tmmature, even where they do not reaeh iuto the worst viees. Au innocent man is nothing but an overgrown baby. No oue admires peach blossoms in December. To keep back a youth artificially in ignorance that he may be innocent, will ncver prepare him to be stroog ia virtue and overeóme the vrorld. Dr. Arnold,' one of the best edueators of youth the world has yet seen, has several admirable remarks on the subject. While he complains that ruany a merry innocent boy is often ruined by life in a public school, Ho pays that where a lad has had principies of positive virtuc, iostilled into him in early life - where the love of right, justice, honor, and integiity has beun distinctly tbstercd, the trials of school life malte a youth stronger and more nianly and vigorous iu all good ways. Lot parents ouly occupy tbc years froiu cight to sixteen in seeking to push home to their childron'n hearts principies of earnest, moral self-culture, and it will save them uot only from criminal, but all those evil courses that are the chief drawbacks from the youths surrounding them. To do this there must be much more eonfidence and frankness between pai ents and children than there visually is - a lettiug down of the wil' that hides the hearts and knowledge of parents and children from ea-óh other. -