HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY THE BEQUEST OF THEODORE JEWETT EASTMAN 1931 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THE first unfoldings of the infant mind are deeply interesting to every careful observer. A career of being is started which is to be commensurate with the eternity of God. Moreover, this sublime future is now wrapped up in a little bud of being, tiny as the few trickling drops gushing from the mountain side, and which may be turned in their course by a chance foot astray, or may else proceed mingling with others to form the mighty Amazon. Who shall guide the embryo immortal? It is a kind and wise providence which commits the helpless, undeveloped one to the arms and the hearts of loving parents. It is a second providence in favor of the infant, and in perfect adaptation to the first, which provides that the moral affections shall be earliest (3) |