It is hoped the title of the following book will excite attention: how
much more, then, should the unhappy situation of those who are in that
state demand compassion! and it is gratefully acknowledged, that in some
benevolent minds the tide of pity has flowed even to them. An Asylum, on
a plan more and more extensive, as the means of making it so has
increased, has been formed for these _once_ melancholy appellants to
their commiseration, but who are _now_, through their means, enabled
cheerfully to pass through life; and scarcely to feel the deprivation of
those powers, which, were it not for this institution, would have sunk
them into listless apathy, or moody ideotism.
Perhaps the reader is little aware how many of his fellow-creatures are
labouring under this misfortune, and how much the number of those who
cannot, from want of room, or means for their support, be admitted into
the Asylum, exceeds those who have received the benefit of it. Let the
following extract acquaint them with it:--"The unhappy malady which
affects these children is found to exist to a dreadful extent; scarcely
a week passes without some application for admission, and though the
number of pupils has been gradually augmented from six to sixty, it must
be stated (and it is stated with deep concern) that at every election,
the _number of candidates_ exceeds, in a _tenfold proportion_, the
number of vacancies! Such a painful fact makes a most interesting and
powerful appeal to every benevolent mind." Another powerful plea may
also be added: that, after twelve, the age appointed by the committee,
they cannot be admitted. Arrived at these years, any one possessing all
his faculties, (and who has till then been brought up in comparative
ignorance,) finds it difficult to learn. But to these unhappy children,
the difficulty must of necessity be increased; besides the danger there
is that, if till that time, they are taught _nothing_, it will be beyond
the reach of human means to rescue them from the state above described.
The writer of the following pages earnestly appeals to the lively
feelings of youth, (the season of compassion,) to consider these things.
Let them remember, it is for those of their own age that their
assistance is demanded; and who, instead of having to look forward to a
life of activity and usefulness--or that they shall fill up their place
in society beneficially, either to themselves or others, must, without
the improvement afforded them by these means, drag on a miserable
existence--a burden to themselves and all around them. The necessitous
in more advanced life, have, at least, the consolation of thinking every
year that passes brings them nearer to the end of their sorrows; and
_blessed_ are they, if they have a _well-grounded_ hope of happiness in
eternity. Their troubles then are nothing; but these poor children are
not only suffering want at the present, (for it is for the children of
_the poor_ I plead,) but continuing as they are, they have no prospect
of ever raising themselves, by useful industry, above it. And what is
still worse, they are in this state excluded from those _means_ which
are appointed by Divine Wisdom for the instruction of his people, and
which lifts their minds to higher views, and enables them to support
affliction, by acquainting them with another and a better world.