I. During childhood. II. After they have attained to manhood, but continue in their father's family. III. After they have attained to manhood, and bave left their father's family. I. During childhood. 1 Children must be fuppofed to have attained to fome degree of difcretion before they are capable of any duty. There is an interval of eight or nine years, between the dawning and the maturity of reason, in which it is neceffary to fubject the inclination of children to many restraints, and direct their application to many employments, of the tendency and ufe of which they cannot judge; for which caufe, the fubmiffion of children during this period must be ready and implicit, with an exception, however, of any manifeft crime, which may be commanded him. II. After they have attained to manhood, but continue in their father's family. If children, when they are grown up, voluntarily continue members of their father's family, they are bound, befide the general duty of gratitude to their parents, to obferve fuch regulations of the family as the father fhall appoint; contribute their labour to its fupport if required; and confine confine themselves to fuch expences as he fhall allow. The obligation would be the fame, if they were admitted into any other family, or received fupport from any other hand. III. After they have attained to manhood, and have left their father's family. The In this state of the relation, the duty to parents is fimply the duty of gratitude; not different in kind, from that which we owe to any other bene factor; in degree, juft fo much exceeding other obligations, by how much a parent has been a greater benefactor than any other friend. fervices and attentions, by which filial gratitude may be teftified, can be comprised within no enumération. It will fhew itfelf in compliances with the will of the parents, however contrary to the child's own tafte and judgment, provided it be neither criminal, nor totally inconfiftent with his happiness; in a conftant endeavour to promote their enjoyments, prevent their wishes, and foften their anxieties, in fmall matters as well as in great; in aflifting them in their business; in contributing to their fupport, ease, or better accommodation, when their circumstances require it; in affording them our company, in preference to more amusing engagements; in waiting upon their fickness or decrepitude; in bearing with the infirmities of their health or temper, with the peevishnefs and complaints, the unfafhionable, negligent, auftere manners, and offenfive habits, which often attend upon advanced years; for where muft old age find indulgence, if it do not meet with it in the piety and partiality of children? The moft ferious contentions between parents and their children, are thofe commonly, which relate to marriage, or to the choice of a profeffion. A parent has, in no cafe, a right to destroy his child's happiness. If it be true therefore, that there there exift such personal and exclusive attachments between individuals of different fexes, that the poffeffion of a particular man or woman in marriage be really neceffary to the child's 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 discover how far, in any particular inftance, 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 so much hafte and paffion, are of this fort. I believe it also 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 fome fuch. Wherefore, a child who refpects his parents' judgment, and is, as he ought to be, tender of their happiness, owes, at leaft, fo much deference to their will, as to try fairly and faithfully, in one cafe, whether time and absence will not quench an affection which they disapprove; and in the other, whether a longer continuance in the profeffion which they have chofen 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 defign 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 perfuafion, that that we shall 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; otherwife it renders youth very untractable; for they fee clearly and truly, that it is impoffible they fhould be happy under the circumftances proposed to them, in their prefent ftate 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, fhould acquiefce: at all events, the child is then at liberty to provide for his own happiness. Parents have no right to urge their children upon marriages, to which they are averfe; nor ought in any fhape, to refent the children's difobedience to fuch commands. This is a different cafe from oppofing 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 compulfion in marriage neceffarily leads to prevarication; as the reluctant party promifes an affection, which neither exifts, nor is expected to take place and parental, like all human authority ccafes, 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 reprefent to the child the confequences of his conduct; and it will be found his best policy to reprefent them with fidelity. It is ufual for parents to exaggerate thefe defcriptions beyond probability, and by exaggeration to lofe all credit with their children; children; thus, in a great meafure, defeating their own end. Parents are forbidden to interfere, where a trust is repofed perfonally in the fon; and where, confequently, the fon was expected, and by virtue of that expectation is obliged, to pursue his own judgment, and not that of any other; as is the cafe with judicial magiftrates, in the execution of their office; with members of the legislature in their votes; with electors, where preference is to be given to certain prefcribed qualifications. 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 one 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 concerning the relief of indigent parents, appear fufficiently from that manly and deferved 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 Christianity, children are, by the law of England, bound to fupport, as well their immediate parents, as their grandfathers and grandmothers, or remoter anceftors, who stand in need of support. Obedience to parents is enjoined by St. Paul to the Ephefians: "Children, obey your parents in the "Lord, |