CHA P. XI. THE DUTY OF CHILDREN. THE Duty of Children may be confidered, 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 have left their father's family. I. During childhood. Children must be supposed to have attained to fome degree of discretion 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 Bb 2 manifest happiness; or if it be true, that an aversion 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 fondness of lovers ever continues with fuch intenfity, and fo long, that the success of their defires constitutes, or the disappointment 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 hafte and paffion, are of this fort. I believe it also to be true, that there are few averfions to a profeffion, which resolution, 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 least, so much deference to their will, as to try fairly and faithfully, in one case, whether time and abfence will not quench an affec tion which they difapprove; and, in the other, whether a longer continuance in the profeffion which they have chofen forhim, 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 present: 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 persuasion: otherwise it renders youth very untractable; for they see clearly and truly that it is impoffible they should be happy under the circumstances 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 fuffer in his parent's affection, or in his fortunes. The parent, when he has reasonable proof of this, fhould acquiesce at all events, the child is then at liberty to provide for his own happiness. Parents 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 fondness of lovers ever continues with fuch intensity, and fo long, that the fuccess of their defires conftitutes, or the disappointment 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 those attachments which young people conceive with fo much hafte and paffion, are of this fort. I believe it alfo to be true, that there are few averfions to a profeffion, which refolution, perseverance, 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 least, so much deference to their will, as to try fairly and faithfully, in one case, whether time and abfence will not quench an affec 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 Chrift, together with the reft of the moral precepts of the decalogue, in various places of the gospel. 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. Agree |