A Citizen of Athens advising with Xenophon about whither he should send his Son for Education, It is my Counsel, answered Xenophon, that you send him to Sparta. To Sparta! says the Athenian; is rude and uncultivated Sparta then preferable to Athens, the Seat of Arts and Sciences? Yes, replies the Sage: at Sparta he will learn a Science worth all the rest, he will learn to obey. According to this Philosopher then, Obedience alone is a Science productive of every useful Knowledge; whereas, without it, all other human Knowledges are often useless, if not, in general, dangerous Acquisitions.

Certain it is, that much may be hoped from setting out right, and every thing is to be feared from a wrong Beginning. Parents therefore who aim at making their Children wise, should aim at previously making them good. That is, (to recapitulate the chief of what has been said) they must make their Wills pliant and tractable, by teaching them an early, very early Obedience: next, they should mould their Hearts, imprint on them a Love of Truth, Honour, Justice, and every other Virtue: lastly, they should form their Minds and Manners, by shewing them the several Duties of their Station, and how to fulfil them.

The first Duties of Children are in great measure mechanical: an obedient Child makes a Bow, comes and goes, speaks, or is silent, just as he is bid, before he knows any other Reason for so doing than that he is bid: the Dawn of Reason shews him general Duties; that is, that he owes to his Parents and Guides Obedience, Respect, and Love: when his Mind is farther opened, and his Judgment has gained Strength, he sees (if led by faithful Teachers) that he is born for an important, nobly important Purpose; and tho’ many particular Obligations, which he was before a Stranger to, present themselves to his View, yet is he convinced that they are nothing but what, under Reason’s Sway, he is capable of answering. Farther, he sees that the Exercise of all moral Obligations are rendered light by being reciprocal; and from a Sense that his own Support, Comfort, and Happiness requires the Aid of others, he chearfully and willingly labours for others. Lastly, he sees, that tho’ irregular Passions sometimes raise Tumults in the Soul, and struggle for the Mastery, yet from the Happiness of a well-tempered Heart, the constant Exercise of Reason, and the Reflection he must needs make on the daily Instances before him of Vice punished and of Virtue rewarded, he may not only be enabled to give Virtue the Ascendant, but to give it on the purest Motive; that is, for the Love of Virtue. All this, I say, unless Children are by Nature untractable, or are over-powered by the Torrent of corrupt Example, will generally be the Effect of well-regulated Manners: and, possessed of all this, who can doubt but that they will then be wise? or who can think that while thus much is wanting they ever can be wise?

Mankind, as has been observed before, naturally desire their Children’s Prosperity and Happiness; but if they seek it in any other Road than this, they must not wonder if they miss of it: rather may they wonder in good earnest, if they ever find it. Still is the ultimate Point untouched: for, besides that our Passions are to be regulated, and our Actions to be innocent in themselves, and valuable to others; to make them perfect, they are farther to be animated by a right Intention: for, says a learned and ingenious Author, “the Intention is the Pulse of the Soul.” Many Actions, in themselves indifferent, are rendered hurtful by an Error in the Intention; and even those which seem calculated by Nature to produce the most signal Advantages to others, as well as to us, are often, for want of being properly directed to their right End, both fruitless to those they were designed to benefit, and even detrimental to ourselves. Here then we are to know, that moral Duties are of divine Origin; and if Nature shews us the first Laws of Right and Wrong, the Author of Nature implanted them in us. But our Obligations to the great Creator of us all will irresistably appear; if we duly survey ourselves and every thing around us; for as thence we shall see that from Him alone we receive all things, so thence shall we be convinced that to Him alone all should be referred. Thus it is evident, that to fill up the Measure of our Duty, three things are necessary: first, we are to be carefully informed what is Right, and what is Wrong; secondly, we are inviolably to adhere to the one, and avoid the other; and, thirdly, the Right we do must be done from Principle; which can no otherwise appear in us than by honouring and serving the Author of our Being, and of all the Blessings we enjoy: these naturally lead us to believe in him, to hope in him, and to love him; and these are Acts which constitute Religion. But here, with all due Reverence, I drop my Pen; leaving the Consideration of our Duties in a religious Light to those whose Province it is to point out, explain and enforce them: to those, in a word, to whom the Office is given from above.

FINIS.