of its
Creator’s goodness. There is no more harm in the play of children than
in the skipping of the lambs. It is necessary to restore the bent bow
to its natural elasticity. It is the voice of nature, which cannot be
hushed.

But having said so much, it is necessary to guard against improprieties
and excesses in amusements. And yet, to determine what amusements
are to be allowed, and what condemned, is no easy matter; for, while
some kinds of amusement are evil in their own nature, and necessarily
injurious, others are evil and injurious only on account of their
_excess_, or of the _manner_ in which they are pursued, or of the
evils that are associated with them. My object is, not so much to point
out what amusements are wrong, as to give you some rules byparticular; but seize
upon the grand points. Take the following specimen of the relation of
the same incident by two different persons:--“You see, I got up this
morning, and dressed myself, and came down stairs, and opened the
front door; and O, if it didn’t look beautiful! For, you see, the sun
shone on the dew,--the dew, you know, that hangs in great drops on the
grass in the morning. Well, as the sun shone on the dewdrops, it was
all sparkling, like so many diamonds; and it looked so inviting, you
see, I thought I must have a walk. So, you see, I went out into the
street, and got over the fence,--the fence, you know, the back side of
the barn. Well, I got over it, and walked into the grove, and there
I heard the blue