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Report of the Morrison Education Society
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tify bad habits, to chasten evil tempers, to uproot false principles and establish true ones, to make the subjects of his care, better in their families, their business, and every sphere of life; to exalt what is low in them, and ennoble them in everything; in short, to make them happy and respected, the friends of truth, the benefactors of man, and the servants of God.
The Bible has been placed in their hands, and every assistance I could give them to understand it, has been gladly rendered. But in order to compel them to accept its doctrines, I must have withheld the book, which, being the great charter of human liberty, denies the right, or power of any man to do so. Nay, the freedom to think, judge and act for one's self, under but one great bond of account- ability, is the very lesson we should wish them to learn first; and if I have endeavored to inculcate any, it is this. Being treated as mem- bers of the family in all desirable points, we have exercised a paren- tal care of them, and I hesitate not to say that the same number of English or American boys, would have given us far more trouble. The reason is not simply that Chinese boys are different from others, but their confidence in their teachers as their best friends, is now well established, and where that feeling exists, there is always a desire to please.-Last spring, the father of one in the older class came to the house, and told his son that he could not let him remain here any longer, but that he must put him out to service, and make him earn something. His father is a poor miserable man, besotted by the use of opium, and has sold his two daughters into slavery to raise money. The boy ran away to the room of his instructor, Mr. Milne, who was teaching him at that time, and told him, what his father had said, adding, “I cannot go." Mr. Milne, willing to ascertain the sincerity of the boy, and the strength of his attachment to his friends here, coolly replied by saying, "Perhaps it would be well for you to go, for probably you could be a table-boy in some gentleman's house, and so get $2 a month, which is two dollars more than you get here, where only your food is given you;"-or some. thing to that effect. The little fellow looked at him steadily while he made these remarks, as if amazed at the strange language he used, and when he had done, turned hastily about, and bursting into tears, exclaimed in English, "I cannot go. If I go away from this school, I shall be lost." This same lad, and another of his class went home at the last Chinese new-year, as usual, with per- mission to remain three weeks, but at the end of five days, they re- turned, saying, that they had no pleasure at home. Another would