An orphan. Nobody to instil those
early lessons of piety . . . to grow up wild, neglected, despised. . . .
It was impossible for a man to avoid going astray in such terribly
unnatural conditions. Everybody else had parents to counsel and direct
them; he alone was bereft of this blessing. It was cruel, it was
illogical, to apply the same standard to him as to those fortunate
other ones. Let the Court call to mind the names of those who had
deviated from the narrow path of duty; did they not all belong to this
unhappy class? It might safely be inferred that they had no mothers!
Such person were to be pitied and helped, rather than condemned for
what was the fault not of their natures but of their anomalous
situation in life. To rescue a motherless young soul from the brink of
perdition was the noblest task of a Christian. And this was still,
thank Heaven, a Christian country, despite the ever-swelling invasion
of that irreligious foreign element which threatened to break up the
old faith in God.
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