"A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love;
A resting place for innocence on earth; a link between angels and men :
Yet is it a talent of trust, a loan to be rendered back with interest;
A delight, but redolent of care; honey-sweet, but lacking not the bitter.
For character groweth day by day, and all things aid it in unfolding,
And the bent unto good or evil may be given in the hours of infancy :
Scratch the green rind of a sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil,
The scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries to come;
Even so mayest thou guide the mind to good, or lead it to the marrings of evil,
For disposition is builded up by the fashionings of first impressions:
Wherefore, though the voice of Instruction waiteth for the ear of Reason,
Yet with his mother's milk the young child drinketh Education."
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.