boy or girl has done that?" has not unfrequently the effect of paralyzing the moral feelings for the instant, so that terror gains the ascendency, and the poor little culprit endeavors to conceal its transgressions by a lie, and perhaps by a second or a third in order to conceal the first.
Nor is it at school alone that occasions occur in which the veracity of youth is sorely tried — indeed more tried than it ever can be in after life; because when we have once attained the independence of maturer years, it is not possible, under ordinary circumstances, that any one should have it in their power to place us in a situation so fraught with terror and distress. In mercy, as well as in justice to children, then, we ought to endeavor to fortify them by moral courage against such trials, in order that when they do occur, the dread of punishment may be lost sight of, in a noble ambition to dare to speak the truth.
I am the more earnest on the subject of moral courage, because I believe too much is done, and that often by excellent persons, to humble, crush, and extinguish natural feeling altogether. Personal humility, we certainly cannot err in promoting to almost any extent; but there are some noble aspirations belonging to our nature, which ought, by all means, to be encouraged; and first among these, I would place an ambition directed to the sole object of doing right in the sight of God and man, under the apprehension of no other danger than that of offending against the Divine law by doing wrong.
Without any reference to a future state, or to the will of a Supreme Being, I am not aware by what means moral courage could be inculcated, or blended with the education of a child; but by the help of this reference, a pious mother has always in her power the means of directing the attention of her child from a lesser to a greater good — from the mere chance of escaping chastisement, to the hope of doing what is most pleasing in the sight of God.
Moral courage consists chiefly in daring to choose, at the moment of trial, a great in preference to a little good; even though the former should be remote, and the latter immediately at hand. It consists in disregarding the transient results which must necessarily ensue, for the sake of
