When I last had the honor of addressing you, I promised that I would endeavor to expose all such parental faults as obstruct the progress of correct education. This promise I will now proceed to fulfil, with only one prefatory request, which is, that if any individuals present shall apply a single remark to themselves, to bear it constantly in mind that such application is made by their own consciences—not by me. _My_ observations will all be general—_theirs_ should be particular, and should be carried home to their own bosoms and business; or all that I shall say, might as well be uttered to so many “deaf adders,” as to intelligent, rational, and moral beings. Having been a parent myself for nearly forty years, and a close observer of other parents ever since I turned my attention particularly to the subject of education, I have much experience to “give in” relative to parental faults and vices. Whether this experience will avail any thing towards their cure, or even their mitigation, your own feelings and judgment can alone decide. The picture which I shall endeavor to draw will be a very revolting one, although not in the slightest degree caricatured or aggravated. But not less revolting is the sight of cancers in the human body, which require to be both seen and thoroughly examined before they can be extirpated. The cancers of the mind, however, as all faults and vices may justly be called, are infinitely harder to cut out; for in all these cases the victim and the operator must be the same person. _Here_, according to the old adage, every one must be his own doctor—since all that can be done for him by others is to tell him of his malady, and to convince him, if possible, in spite of his self-love and blindness, of its highly dangerous tendency, as well as of its certainly fatal termination, unless he himself will most earnestly and anxiously set about its cure. To produce this conviction in all my hearers who need it, arduous as the undertaking may be, is the sole purpose for which I now address you.