Left to Itself

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 1, 1861

LEFT TO ITSELF.—Coleridge says that as one of his friends was expressing his idea that it was unfair to influence a child’s mind by inculcating any opinions before it should come to years of discretion, and be able to choose for itself, he showed him his garden, telling him it was his botanic garden. “How so?” said he; “it is covered with weeds.” “Oh,” said Coleridge, “that is because it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow, and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil against them for roses and strawberries.