naments, which are the strength and support of society, add a brighter lustre to the fair than all the jewels of the East.

CATO, though he kept a master expressly for his son in his own house, yet he frequently examined him as to the progress he made in his learning; and, when time permitted, would take great pleasure in teaching him himself.

AUGUSTUS did the same with regard to his grandchildren, Caius and Lucius; and the great Theodosius made it a part of his religion to sit by Arsenius, whilst he taught his sons Arcadius and Honorius.

ROM. HIST.

PAULUS ÆMILIUS, after the expiration of his first consulship, substituted the sweets of repose for the splendor of employments. As augur, he applied himself to the affairs of religion; and as a father, to the education of his children. He was very reserved, and frugal in every thing that tended only to luxury and pomp ; but noble and magnificent in respect to expenses of honour and duty; in consequence of which, he spared nothing to procure them an education worthy of their birth. Grammarians, rhetoricians, philosophers, sculptors, painters, masters expert in breaking and managing horses; hunters, who taught youth the exercises of the chase: in a word, he gave his sons all the aids and masters that were necessary in forming both their minds and bodies.

When he was not employed in public affairs, he would be present at their studies and exercises: by these assiduous cares evincing, that of all the Romans, he was the father who had most love* and tenderness for his children.

PLUT. IN MIL.

* Φιλοτεκνότατα ρωμαίων γενομείο. It were to be wished that this example were followed by all persons in high stations, who are indeed accountable for their time to the public; but who are not thereby discharged from

BUT our own court supplies us with an example of parental affection, equal, if not superior, to any other on record, and which commands the imitation of every family in the kingdom; I mean in the tender, but prudent conduct of the late queen Caroline. Authority, which is lost in almost every other house, was carefully preserved in the royal palace; where it was rightly judg. ed, that affection and education without government and restraint, as planting without pruning and lopping off luxurious branches, would produce minds void of strength and beauty, and unable to bring forth the fruits of useful and reasonable action. The queen knew how absolutely necessary it was to teach youth very early, to refuse whatever was hurtful or dishonourable; and to prefer the constant and durable good, before momentary and fleeting pleasures. She knew that in the practice of this doctrine of refusing, lay all the seeds of virtue, and the foundation of every thing great and truly noble; for which reason she never gratified her children with what was improper for her to give, or them to receive.

The best proof undoubtedly which parents can give of their affection to their children, is to endeavour to make them wise and good. The first class of duties which parents owe their children respects their natural life; and this comprehends protection, nurture, provision, introducing them into the world in a manner suitable to their rank and fortune, and the like. The se cond order of duties regards the intellectual and moral life of their children, or their education in such arts and accomplishments as are necessary to qualify them for performing the duties they owe to themselves and others. As this was found to be the principal design of the matrimonial alliance, so the fulfilling that design is the most important and dignified of all the parental duIn order therefore to fit the child for acting his part wisely and worthily as a man, as a citizen, and a

ties.

the cares which they owe their children, by a natural and indispensible right; and the more, as labouring for their instruction is serving the public.

creature of God, both parents ought to combine their joint wisdom, authority, and power, and each apart to employ those talents which are the peculiar excellency and ornament of their respective sex. The father ought to lay out and superintend their education; the mother to execute and manage the detail of which she is capable. The former should direct the manly exertion of the intellectual and moral powers of his child; his imagination and the manner of those exertions, are the peculiar province of the latter. The former should advise, protect, command; and by his experience, masculine vigour, and that superior authority which is commonly ascribed to his sex, brace and strengthen his pupil for active life, for gravity, integrity, and firmness in suffering. The business of the latter is to bend and soften her male pupil by the charms of her conversation, and the softness and decency of her manners, for social life, for politeness of taste, and the elegant decorum and enjoyments of humanity; and to improve and refine the tenderness and modesty of her female pupil, and form her to all those mild domestic virtues, which are the peculiar characteristics and ornaments of her

sex.

To conduct the opening minds of their sweet charge through the several periods of their progress, to assist them in each period in throwing out the latent seeds of reason and ingenuity, and in giving fresh accessions of light and virtue; and, at length, with all these advantages, to produce the young adventurers upon the great theatre of human life, to act their several parts in the sight of their friends, of society, and mankind; how gloriously does heaven reward the task, where the parents behold those dear images and representations of themselves inheriting their virtues as well as fortunes, sustaining their respective characters gracefully and worthily, and giving them the agreeable prospect of transmitting their names with growing honours and advantage to a race yet unborn !

THE CHARACTER OF

A GOOD FATHER.

:

THE good father is ever humane, tender, and affectionate to his children; he treats them, therefore, with lenity and kindness; corrects with prudence, rebukes with temper, and chastises with reluctance: he never suffers his indulgence to degenerate into weakness, or his affection to be biassed by partiality: as he rejoices in their joy, and participates in their afflictions, he never suffers them to want a blessing which he can bestow, or lament an evil which he can prevent : whilst he continueth with them, he administers to their present happiness, and provides for their future felicity when he shall be removed from them he is doubly cautious in preserving his own character, because theirs depend upon it: he is prudent, therefore, that they may be happy; industrious, that they may be rich; good and virtuous, that they may be respected: he instructs by his life, and teaches by his example: as he is thoroughly satisfied that piety is the source and foundation of every virtue, he takes care to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord: that they may be good men, he endeavours to make them good Christians: and after having done every thing in his power to make them easy and happy here, he points out to them the only infallible means of securing eternal bliss and tranquillity

hereafter.

AFFECTION FILIAL.

SENTIMENTS.

IT may be truly said, that if persons are undutiful to their parents, they seldom prove good to any other relation.

The honour which children are required to give to

their father and mother, includes in it, love, reverence, obedience, and relief. It is usual with Providence to retaliate men's disobedience to their parents in kind : commonly our own children shall pay us home for it.

Where shall we find the person who hath received from any one benefits so great, or so many, as children from their parents? To them it is they owe their very existence, and consequently all the pleasures and enjoyments of life.

No one will expect a return of kindness, however considerable, from him who can show himself unmindful of what he oweth his parents.

To see a father treating his sons like an elder brother, and to see sons covet their father's company and conversation, because they think him the wisest and most agreeable man of their acquaintance, is the most amiable picture the eye can behold; it is a transplanted selflove, as sacred as friendship, as pleasurable as love, and as happy as religion can make it.

If every father remembered his own thoughts and inclinations when he was a son, and every son remembered what he expected from his father, when he himself was in a state of dependency; this one reflection would keep fathers from being rigid, or sons dissolute.

sons.

EXAMPLES.

TMANLIUS, the Roman dictator, having exercised great violence and cruelty over the citizens, was cited at the expiration of his office to answer for his conduct. Among other things that were laid to his charge, he was accused of treating with barbarity one of his own -Manlius, it seems, had no other cause of complaint against his son than his having an impediment in his speech.* For this reason he was banished far from the city, from his home, and the company of those of his own age and fortune, and condemned to servile works, and a prison like a slave. All were highly exasperated against so severe a dictator, and so inhuman a father, except the son himself, who, moved with filial

* Quia infacundior sit, et lingua impromptu. Liv.