happiness; or if it be true, that an averfion to a particular profeffion may be involuntary and unconquerable; then it will follow, that parents, where this is the cafe, ought not to urge their authority, and that the child is not bound to obey it.

The point is, to difcover how far, in any particular instance, this is the cafe. Whether the fondnefs of lovers ever continues with fuch intensity, and fo long, that the fuccefs of their defires conftitutes, or the difappointment affects, any confiderable portion of their happiness, compared with that of their whole life, it is difficult to determine; but there can be no difficulty in pronouncing, that not one half of thofe attachments which young people conceive with fo much haste and paffion, are of this fort. I believe it alfo to be true, that there are few averfions to a profeffion, which refolution, perfeverance, activity in going about the duty of it, and, above all, defpair of changing, will not fubdue: yet there are some fuch. Wherefore, a child who refpects his parents' judgment, and is, as he ought to be, tender of their happiness, owes, at least, so much deference to their will, as to try fairly and faithfully, in one cafe, whether time and abfence will not cool an affec

tion which they disapprove; and, in the other, whether a longer continuance in the profeffion which they have chosen for him, may not reconcile him to it. The whole depends upon the experiment being made on the child's part with fincerity, and not merely with a design of compaffing his purpose at laft, by means of a fimulated and temporary compliance. It is the nature of love and hatred, and of all violent affections, to delude the mind with a persuasion, that we fhall always continue to feel them, as we feel them at prefent: we cannot conceive that they will either change or ceafe. Experience of fimilar or greater changes in ourselves, or a habit of giving credit to what our parents, or tutors, or books teach us, may control this perfuafion: otherwise it renders youth very untractable; for they fee clearly and truly that it is impoffible they fhould be happy under the circumftances propofed to them, in their present state of mind. After a fincere but ineffectual endeavour, by the child, to accommodate his inclination to his parent's pleasure, he ought not to fuffer in his parent's affection, or in his fortunes. The parent, when he has reasonable proof of this, should acquiefce: at all events, the child is then at liberty to provide for his own happiness.

Parents

ད་

Parents have no right to urge their children upon marriages to which they are averfe; nor ought, in any shape, to refent the children's difobedience to fuch commands. This is a different cafe from opposing a match of inclination, because the child's mifery is a much more probable confequence; it being easier to live without a perfon that we love, than with one whom we hate. Add to this, that compulsion in marriage neceffarily leads to prevarication; as the reluctant party promises an affection, which neither exifts, nor is expected to take place; and parental, like all human authority, ceases at the point where obedience becomes criminal.

In the above-mentioned, and in all contefts between parents and children, it is the parent's duty to represent to the child the confequences of his conduct; and it will be found his best policy to represent them with fidelity. It is usual for parents to exaggerate these descriptions beyond probability, and by exaggeration to lose all credit with their children; thus, in a great meafure, defeating their own end.

Parents are forbidden to interfere, where a truft is reposed personally in the fon; and where, confequently, the fon was expected, and by virtue of that expectation is obliged, to pursue his

own

1

own judgment, and not that of any other as
is the cafe with judicial magiftrates in the exe-
cution of their office; with members of the le-
gislature in their votes; with electors, where pre-
ference is to be given to certain prescribed quali
fications. The fon may affift his own judgment
by the advice of his father, or of
any one whom
he chooses to confult: but his own judgment,
whether it proceed upon knowledge or authority,
ought finally to determine his conduct.

The duty of children to their parents was thought worthy to be made the subject of oné of the ten commandments; and, as fuch, is recognized by Christ, together with the reft of the moral precepts of the decalogue, in various places of the gofpel.

The fame divine teacher's fentiments concern

ing the relief of indigent parents, appear fufficiently from that manly and deserved indignation, with which he reprehended the wretched cafuiftry of the Jewish expofitors, who, under the name of a tradition, had contrived a method of evading this duty, by converting, or pretending to convert, to the treasury of the temple, fo much of their property, as their diftreffed parent might be entitled by their law to demand.

Agreeably to this law of Nature and Chriftianity, children are, by the law of England, bound to fupport, as well their immediate parents, as their grandfather and grandmother, or remoter ancestors, who fland in need of fupport.

Obedience to parents is enjoined by St. Paul to the Ephefians: " Children, obey your parents in "the Lord, for this is right;" and to the Coloffians: "Children, obey your parents in all

things, for this is well pleafing unto the "Lord*."

By the Jewish law, disobedience to parents was in fome extreme cafes capital. Deut. xxi. 18.

* Upon which two phrafes, "this is right," and "for "this is well pleafing unto the Lord," being used by St. Paul in a fenfe perfectly parallel, we may obferve, that moral rectitude, and conformity to the divine will, were, in his apprehenfion, the fame.

End of the FIRST VOLUME,