But there is still a darker side to this grievance. The death of the few is less calculated to excite our compassion, than the miserable, lingering existence of the many. When I see the little boys and girls playing before the doors, often with crooked backs or crooked limbs, with emaciated forms and faces, if not with still more unmistakable marks of disease, I cannot help thinking,—Are these boys to be our future working-men, upon whose sinew and muscle we are to depend for cultivating our soil, constructing our railways, sinking our mines, and defending our country; and are these girls to be the mothers of the next generation? There was mercy, as well as judgment, in the punishment that followed the disobedience of our first parents. The sentence, “In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread,” is not an unmitigated evil. The most active persons are generally the most cheerful; and the hard workers are usually happier than the deep thinkers. But when the body, which God intended and adapted for labour, has, by the habitual violation of the laws of health, during all its first years, become enfeebled and deranged, the necessity for exertion becomes a _painful_ reality, and may, indeed, be looked upon as a curse—as “the dark cloud without a silver lining.” There is a deeper meaning than some suppose in that constant application for “light places,” of which we hear so much. Some tell us, it is all indolence; and thus on the surface it often appears. But surely there must be some cause, even for indolence. A child of good constitution, and where health has been judiciously cared for, becomes, as soon as he is able to manifest his power, almost inconveniently active. The nurse complains that “he will never bide still;” that she “can’t get a minute’s peace for him;” that “there is no end to the mischief he does.” Now, a child is not active from principle, nor because he feels it would be wrong to be indolent. He has not to be instructed to move, although he sometimes has to be taught to be still. Activity is the joy of his life, and would doubtless continue so, if it were not for the evil influences that are permitted to surround the body, marring God’s beautiful work, and bringing down the dishonouring reflection upon the Creator, that man, as he is constituted, is “not strong enough for his place.”