In a few months, he
took a respectable position among lads of his age. The world had done
for this boy what good schools do not always accomplish,--made him
familiar with things before he was troubled with the signs which stand
for them. There is an ignorance in manhood; an ignorance under the show
of profound learning; an ignorance for which schools, academies and
colleges, are often responsible; an ignorance that neither schools,
academies nor colleges, can conceal from the humblest intellects; an
ignorance of life and things as they are within the sphere of our own
observation. From this most deplorable ignorance this boy had escaped;
and the light of learning illumined his mind, as the sun in his daily
return reveals anew those forms of life, which, even in an ungenial
spring and early summer, his rays had warmed into existence, and
nourished and cherished in their progress towards perfection.
And, ladies and gentlemen, let us indulge the hope that the events of
this day and the faith of this assembly will declare that it is
possible to save the children of orphanage, intemperance, neglect, scorn
and ignorance, from many of the evils which surround them. Let it not be
assumed and believed that the task of training and saving girls is less
hopeful than similar labors in behalf of the other sex. It has been
found true in Europe, and it is a prevailing opinion in this country,
that, among adults, the reformation of females is more difficult than
the reformation of males.
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