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LESSON I.

On the Duty of Children to Parents.

HE Courfe and Compafs of God's Providence, and his Methods of establishing and evidencing the Meafures of reciprocal Duty, is no where more remarkable than in the mutual Obligations between Parents and their Children. The Child comes into the World naked and helpless, and from himself more destitute of the natural Means of Security and Support, than almoft any of the inferior Creatures. In this Exigency the Parental Care and Tenderness fteps in to his Relief, fupplies all his Neceffities, and relieves all his Wants; bears with all his untowardly Difpofitions, at an Age when he is neither capable of being corrected or convinced; and not only provides the propereft Food for him, when he is incapable of providing any for himfelf, but likewife adminifters it when he is incapable of feeding himfelf; bears with all Degrees of his Folly and Impertinence, liftens to all his trifling and idle Enquiries, not only with Patience, but with Pleafure, till they gradually conduct him to Health, and Strength, and Knowledge. But the Child is not long arrived at this Perfection of his Nature, before his Parents begin to fall gradually into the fame Infirmities thro' which they but lately conducted and fupported their Children, and to need the fame Affiftance which they lately lent. And first they begin to grow fickly, and then they call for the Aid of that Health which they cultivated and took care of in their Children. The lofs of Chearfulness and good Humour commonly fucceeds the lofs of Health; the old Parents are un

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cafy,

eafy, and fret at all about them. And now is the Time for Children to return all that Tenderness and Patience to their Parents Peevishness, without Sournefs or Reproof, which their Parents had long lent them in all their childish Perverseness, at an Age when they were not capable of being corrected. In the next place, the old Parents grow troublefomely talkative, and (as Youth is too apt to think) impertinent, and dwell eternally upon the Obfervations and Adventures of their Times and earlier Years. Remember, you also had your Time of being talkative and impertinent, and your Parents bore with you, but with this Difference, you afked them filly and trifling Questions, and they now tell you wife and useful Observations. But they are troublesome because they tell them too often. The Answer to this is very obvious; if your Parents bore your Folly, you may well bear their Wisdom; and although perhaps they talk more than is neceffary to inform you of present Things, yet their Converfation turns moftly upon Things past, perhaps paft many Years before you came into the World, and confequently fuch as they muft know a thousand times better than you. Or though they should talk more than is neceffary to inform you, they do not talk more than is neceffary to inform your Servants, or your Children, who are now come to an Age of afking many Queftions; and therefore Providence hath well appointed, that their Grand-father or their Grand-mother are now in an Humour to answer them all, and to fupply them with a Store of useful Obfervations which they want, nay, which they want to hear over and over again, which they want to have inculcated a thoufand times, and which without this Affiftance, would require a Course of Years to acquire for themselves. So that the Humour of Talkativenefs, which is commonly thought fo troublesome in old People, hath its Ufe, and is moft excellently appointed by Almighty God. But fay it were not, the Children in bearing with it, do but barely return their Parents what they long fince owed them. In the next place, the Strength of the old Parents fails them, and they cannot walk without a Support; but fure, you will not let them want one! How many Years did they bear you in their Arms? How many more did they lead you where you would be, and faved you from Falling and from Danger? And will you now fuffer thofe old Limbs to totter and fall to the Earth, which fo often fupported and faved yours when they were weak and tender, and unable to fupport and fave themselves? Certainly you will not, you cannot at once be guilty of fo much

Cruelty

Cruelty and Ingratitude. In the last place, the Understanding of the old Parents begins to fail, and the Strength of their Minds doth not long outlive the Strength of their Bodies, but decays gradually till they become again Children; their Teeth fall, and their Tongues faulter, and they are once more Infants, and are now confin'd to their Beds, as they were at first to their Cradles. This is the last Stage of Life; and here they demand all that Care, and Compaffion, and Tenderness at your Hands, when they are just going out of the World, which you called for at theirs when you first came into it.

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LESSON II.

The Folly of PRIDE.

F there be any thing which makes human Nature appear ridiculous to Beings of fuperior Faculties, it must be Pride. They know fo well the Vanity of those imaginary Perfections that fwell the Heart of Man, and of thofe little fupernumerary Advantages, whether in Birth, Fortune, or Title, which one Man enjoys above another, that it must certainly very much astonish, if it does not very much divert them, when they fee a Mortal puffed up, and valuing himself above his Neighbours on any of these Accounts, at the fame time that he is obnoxious to all the common Calamities of the Species. To fet this Thought in its true Light, we will fancy, if you pleafe, that yonder Mole-hill is inhabited by reasonable Creatures, and that every Pifmire (his Shape and Way of Life excepted) is endowed with human Paffions. How fhould we fmile to hear one give us an Account of the Pedigrees, Diftinctions, and Titles that reign among them!-Obferve how the whole Swarm divides and makes way for the Pifmire that pafles through them! You muft understand he is an Emmet of Quality, and has better Blood in his Veins than any Pifmire in the Mole-hill. Don't you see how fenfible he is of it, how flow he marches forward, how the whole Rabble of Ants keep their Distance? -Here you may obferve one placed upon a little Eminence, and looking down on a long Row of Labourers. He is the richest Infect on this Side the Hillock, he has a Walk of half a Yard in Length, and a quarter of an Inch in Breadth; he

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keeps

keeps a hundred menial Servants, and has at leaft fifteen Barly-corns in his Granary. He is now chiding and beslaving the Emmet that ftands before him, and who, for all that we can discover, is as good an Emmet as himself.

But here comes an Infect of Figure! Don't you take no

tice of a little white Straw that he carries in his Mouth? That Straw, you must understand, he would not part with for the longest Tract about the Mole-hill; did you but know what he has undergone to purchase it! See, the Ants of all Qualities and Conditions fwarm about him; fhould this Straw drop out of his Mouth, you would fee all this numerous Circle of Attendants follow the next that took it up, and leave the discarded Infect, or run over his Back to come at his Succeffor. If now you have a mind to fee all the Ladies of the Mole-hill, obferve firft the Pifmire that liftens to the Emmet on her Left Hand, at the fame time that she feems to turn her Head away from him. He tells this poor Infect that she is a Goddefs, that her Eyes are brighter than the Sun, that Life and Death are at her Difpofal. She believes him. and gives herself a thoufand little Airs upon Mark the Vanity of the Pifmire on your Left Hand! fhe can fcarce crawl with Age, but you must know fhe values herfelf upon her Birth, and if you mind, fpurns at every one that comes within her Reach. The little nimble Coquette that is running along by the Side of her is a Wit; fhe has broke many a Pifmire's Heart; do but obferve what a Drove of Lovers are running after her.-We will here finish this imaginary Scene; but first of all, to draw the Parallel closer, will fuppofe, if you please, that Death comes down upon the Mole-hill in the Shape of a Cock-Sparrow, who picks up without Distinction, the Pifmire of Quality and his Flatterers, the Pifmire of Subftance and his Day-Labourers, the White Straw Officer and his Sycophants, with all the Goddeffes, Wits and Beauties of the Mole-hill.

May we not imagine, that Beings of fuperior Natures and Perfections regard all the Inftances of Pride and Vanity among our own Species in the fame kind of View, when they take a Survey of those who inhabit the Earth? Or, in the Language of an ingenious French Poet, thofe Pifmires that people this Heap of Dirt, which human Vanity has divided into Climates and Regions?

LESSON

LESSON III.

On CONVERSATION.

OCIETY fubfifts amongst Men by a mutual Communication of their Thoughts to each other. Words, Looks, Gesture, and different Tones of Voice, are the Means of that Communication. I speak, and in an Inftant my Ideas and Sentiments are communicated to the Perfon who hears me; my whole Soul in a manner paffes into his. This Communication of my Thoughts, is again the Occafion of others in him, which he communicates to me in his turn. Hence arifes one of the most lively of our Pleasures; by this means too we enlarge our Knowledge, and this reciprocal Commerce is the principal Source of our intellectual Wealth.

The first Rule with regard to Converfation, is to obferve all the Laws of Politeness in it. This Rule is of all others the most indifpenfable. It is not in every one's Power perhaps to have fine Parts, fay witty Things, or tell a Story agreeably; but every Man may be polite, if he pleases, at leaft to a certain Degree. Politeness has infinitely more Power to make a Perfon be loved, and his Company fought after, than the moft extraordinary Parts or Attainments he can be Master of. These scarce ever fail of exciting Envy, and Envy has always fome Ill-will in it. If you would be efteemed, make yourself be loved; we always efteem the Perfon we love more than he deferves, and the Person we do not love, as little as ever we can; nay, we do all we can to defpife him, and commonly fucceed in it.

Great Talents for Converfation require to be accompanied with great Politeness; he who eclipfes others owes them great Civilities; and whatever a mistaken Vanity may tell us, it is better to pleafe in Converfation than to fhine in it.

Another general Rule in Converfation is, to conform yourself to the Tafte, Character, and prefent Humour of the Perfons you converfe with. This Rule is a Confequence of the foregoing; Politenefs dictates it, but it requires a large Fund of good Nature and Complaifance to obferve it; not but that a Perfon muft follow his Talent in Converfation; do not force Nature, no one ever did it with Succefs. If you have not a Talent for Humour, or Raillery, or Story-telling, never attempt them. Contain yourself alfo

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within

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