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ass" for his undue indulgence of mere childish lavishness. Not long since we were quietly examining a little patient, who, not relishing the process, struck us in the face. The mother took the matter as an excellent joke; not so the author, who indulged in the unpleasant reflection that the germ of a possible murderer was being carefully nourished in that fashionable "south front." These fits of rage on the part of little boys, are often foolishly encouraged, or at least quietly regarded as "marks of spirit" and very "comical." So they are in babies; they are terrible in men.
Most vices are only distorted virtues, and the very elements we have so much occasion to dread, are, when properly directed, so many sources of excellence. Positive qualities are of slow growth, and, whether good or evil, they invariably date back to the nursery. Crime, then, may be restricted within very narrow limits, and by proper management, may be banished from good society and monopolized by those who, like Topsy, "only growed."
It will be readily perceived, from what has been already said, that the transition of Young America from boy to man is too brief to be separately considered. The habits acquired at school are perfected in the university or the counting-room. For good or for evil they go on ripening in these arenas, and bear fruit in the hosts of skeptics, infidels, and libertines now crowding our land.
