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which is not conducted upon consistent principles; never can be productive of any good. It is in vain that we labour to reconcile the worship of God and Mammon. If we teach the first by our lips, and the latter by our lives, we may assure ourselves that the latter only will be taught effectually. Had the Lady I have mentioned above studied consistency, her lesson to her grandson would have run as follows:

"You see, my dear boy, the advantage of riches, which procure people respect and esteem; therefore you must by all means strive to become rich, But riches alone are not sufficient, for very vulgar people may become rich; but you must likewise be fashionable, and keep fashionable company, and learn to like what fashionable people like, and to do what fashionable people do; and to hate every thing, and every person, that is vulgar and ungenteel. You must always keep it in remembrance, that if you are a man of fashion, you will gain admittance into the best of company, though you have no good quality to recommend you; nay, though you are guilty of the most attrocious sins, provided they be the sins of a gentleman. For you see, my dear, how my Lord ***, and Mr. ***, and Sir ***, are sought after, and respected, and caressed, by people of fashion; though we all know, that they have been guilty of murder, and adultery, and seduction; that they are tyrannical in their dispositions, unjust in their dealings, and equally capricious and foolish in every part of their conduct. But still they are men of fashion, and on that account are received into the best of company. Make it, therefore, your endeavour, my dear, to be a man of fashion, and

every body that is worth knowing will love you." Every word here said would have been so correspondent with the associations already formed, and perpetually reiterated, that the mind would not have been bewildered between two opposite principles of action. All would have been plain and consistent.

Is any fashionable mother shocked at the idea of repeating this lesson to her child in words? Let her reflect, whether she may not every day have repeated it far more forcibly by her conduct; and let her remember, that those associations which lead to preference or contempt, are not the work of a few set lessons, but are formed by sympathy, imitation, and habit.

Believing in the truth of the observation with which I concluded the last sentence, I should here, were these Letters intended for your private perusal, close the subject at once; but if they are given to the public, I am, alas! too sensible that they may be read by many mothers, whose families are conducted upon principles very different from those which regulate yours! From the earliest dawn of reason, the children of my friend must learn an esteem for virtue, and an aversion and contempt for vice, from the tenor of all that is presented to their observation. They uniformly behold respect and esteem attending on wisdom and worth. The respect of civility they indeed see given to rank, but they soon learn to distinguish it from that respect of the heart which they see reserved for superiority of worth. They are taught lessons of benevolence, not by words but by actions. The sympathies of their hearts are thus imperceptibly turned into the cur

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rent of virtue; while religion appears not as a cold and contrary running-stream into which they must occasionally dip, but as the sweet and delightful fountain of all that is good and amiable!

In what I have then yet to add, you, my Friend, and those who are like you, will only find cause of self-congratulation. You will, perhaps, see reason to set a higher value upon the advantages enjoyed by your children than has before occured to you; and while you reflect on these with the gratitude so natural to your heart, may it be the boon of the God of mercies to confirm and realise the delightful hopes that spring in your maternal bosom!

Adieu.

LETTER XII.

ASSOCIATIONS PRODUCTIVE OF SELFISHNESS AND

PRIDE.

Love of Wealth: how inspired.-Effects of the love of wealth upon individuals and society -Advantages of keeping this desire in subjection.-Observations.

IT is observed by the judicious author of the Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, that of the various objects of our pursuit in life, hardly any one of them is appreciated by any two men in the same manner; and that frequently what one man considers as essential to his happiness, is regarded with indifference or dislike by another. "Of these differences of opinions," he continues, "much is, no doubt, to be ascribed to a diversity of constitution, which renders a particular employment of the intellectual or active powers agreeable to one man, which is not equally so to another. But much is likewise to be ascribed to the effect of association; which prior to any experience of human life, connects pleasing ideas and pleasing feelings with different objects in the minds of different persons. Again; That the casual associations which the mind forms in childhood, and in early youth, are frequently a source of inconvenience and of misconduct, is sufficiently obvious; but that this tendency in our nature increases, upon the whole, the sum of human enjoyment, appears to me to be indisputable; and the instances in which it misleads us from our

duty and our happiness, only prove to what importe ant ends it might be subservient, if it were kept under proper regulation.”

In order to ascertain what the associations are which thus mislead us from our duty and our happiness, it will be necessary to examine, as well as we are able, into the nature of the common objects of pursuit; those objects which we most eagerly desire and most highly prize, and the enjoyment of which, consequently, excites the greatest degree of self-complacency.

The first that occur to our consideration, are wealth, power, and glory. Mr. Stewart says, "It is on account of the enjoyments which it enables us to purchase, that money is originally desired; and that in process of time, by means of the agreeably im presssions associated with it, it comes to be desired for its own sake; and even continues to be an ob ject of our pursuit, long after we have lost all relish for those enjoyments which it enables us to command." I pay due deference to such authority; but must confess, that it appears to me, that by means of agreeable impressions associated with it, wealth becomes a desirable object to the mind, long, before any distinct notions are formed of the enjoyments which it enables us to purchase.

Of the various objects with which children are surrounded, those would naturally appear the most valuable which were the most useful, or which contributed in the greatest degree to their amusement. Nor is it easy to make children who have been brought up with simplicity, comprehend why a thing of little or no use is to be valued on account of what it cost. This adventitious value is, however, learn

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