cred by justice and humanity; nor can a sensibility to the feelings, and an interest in the happiness of the human race, prove in any instance inimical to virtue. The child of a West-Indian planter, whose mind has never been tinctured with a single prejudice in favour of the rights of man, who has been brought up in the school of despotism, and taught from infancy to consider the happiness of the many as a proper sacrifice to the avarice and luxury of the few, will not, I apprehend, be found to possess notions of filial obedience of a very exemplary kind. By impressing children with a proper sense of their own weakness, by inspiring them with gratitude and love towards all those from whom they receive assistance and protection, and by teaching them from infancy habits of submission to the dictates of superior age and wisdom, a foundation will certainly be laid for filial obedience, independent of any political creed; and if in the cultivation of the understanding, care be taken not to destroy what has been done for the cultivation of the heart, by an improper application of the stimulants of envy and vanity, we have reason to hope that the superstructure will be agreeable to our wishes.

Adieu.

LETTER IX.

ASSOCIATIONS DESTRUCTIVE OF BENEVOLENCE.

Pernicious effects of partiality.-Of ridicule.—Of contempt for the female character.

THE disposition to benevolence is sown and nourished in the grateful soil of family affection. Where children are educated upon sensible principles, so that their wills are not perpetually clashing with each other, mutual affection must naturally spring from sympathy in each other's joys, and the pleasure derived from each other's society. But this affection is too often nipped in the bud by the canker of parental partiality.

Children are so far conscious of their rights, as to feel that they have an equal claim to the parent's tenderness and affection. Where this claim is not allowed, and capricious fondness singles out some particular objects on which to lavish its regards, it never fails to produce the worst consequences both on the favoured and neglected parties. In the former it engenders pride and arrogance, in the latter it brings forth indignation and hatred; and destroys the sense of justice in both. It too often

happens, that personal defects, or personal charms, occasion this unfortunate bias in a mother's mind. Sometimes that briskness which is so frequently mistaken for genius, or that slowness which is confounded with stupidity, becomes an excuse for partiality or dislike; and sometimes no excuse is

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VOL. I.

attempted, but the sensible one, that "it is a feeling which cannot be helped!"

Whatever may be the motive assigned for partiality to a favourite, or for dislike to an unfavoured child, the mother who indulges her feelings with regard to either, may be assured she is guilty of a crime of no light dye. She, in the first place, breaks the bonds of family affection, and sows the seeds of discord among her children, which, as they grow up, produce envy, jealousy, and a perpetual recurrence of strife. Home is thus made a scene of displacency and discontent; than which nothing can be more inimical to the feelings of benevolence.

If the injury done to the rest of her offspring make a slight impression on the mother's heart, the injury done to the favourite by her ill-judged partiality is surely worthy her attention. Let the partial mother consider, that she is not only perverting the heart of her beloved darling, by the introduction of all the passions connected with pride and arrogance; but by rendering him an object of jealousy and envy, is begetting towards him the hatred and aversion of those to whom in after life he ought naturally to look for solace and support; that she may be the means of depriving his youth of the blessings of fraternal affection, and his old age of the consolations of fraternal sympathy.

Nor is it the affection and good-will of his own family alone of which she robs him. No one can regard a spoiled child but with feelings of dislike. The faults which good-nature would overlook, the blemishes which compassion would regard with tenderness, become odious and revolting, when seen in the object of blind and doating partiality. Can a mother compensate by her endearments for

thus depriving her child of the good-will of brothers, sisters, relations, and friends?

The child who finds itself the object of dislike to every one besides, will, it is true, be induced to cling to her to whom alone it perceives itself an object of affection; and this exclusive preference is so pleasing to self-love, that a weak mother is sufficiently gratified by the expression of it, without troubling herself to examine the principles from which it flows.

In families where connubial harmony has not survived the honey-moon; where mutual esteem and mutual complacency have given place to the little jealousies of prerogative, and the splenetic humours of contradiction; it is no uncommon thing to see the well-being and happiness of children sacrificed to the spirit of contention. I have lately heard of an instance in point, where two fine children have been the victims of this disunion of sentiment and affection. The boy, the mother's darling, has had his temper completely ruined by her indulgence; while his resentful passions are perpetually irritated, not subdued by the severity of the father. This severity is revenged in turn by the mother on the father's favourite; the poor little girl being always whipped by her, whenever the father has bestowed upon the boy a similar chastisement. What are the dispositions, what the sentiments, that must thus be inevitably inspired? The love towards the parent who indulges, must be unmingled with esteem, respect, or veneration, and associated merely with ideas of selfish gratification; while towards the other parent, the sense of injustice will operate to the production of sullen hatred and slavish fear. Thus pride and displacency, selfishness and malevolence, will be cherished in the

infant bosom; till an habitual tendency to all the passions and affections against which it is the peculiar duty of a parent to guard, will be fatally introduced, leading their victims to vice and misery.

The feelings of benevolence will neither be uniform nor extensive in their operation, unless they are supported by a strong sense of justice. For this end the necessity and propriety of practising the rule of "doing as they would be done by,' ought to be early and forcibly inculcated on the minds of children; and as opportunities of inculcating it daily and hourly occur, they ought never to be passed in silence.

When a child has received pleasure from the complaisance of a companion, or been gratified by any act of kindness or generosity, an appeal ought instantly to be made to his feelings, and the duty of contributing in a similar manner to the happiness of others enforced at the moment when the mind is in a proper tone for the exercise of the sympathetic affections. When he has received any hurt or injury, instead of soothing his angry passions by taking part in his quarrel, the opportunity ought to be seized, for recalling to his mind the petty injuries he may have inflicted on a companion on some former occasion, and thus inspiring him with a regard for the feelings of others.

An early and deep-founded sense of justice is the proper soil wherein to nourish every moral virtue. Nor is it more essential towards the culture of the heart, than of the understanding. When we come to investigate the faculty of judgment, we shall have a fuller view of its important consequences. At present I shall only urge the necessity of paying a strict attention to those early habits and associa