offices to his benefactor, the rest of the world can have nothing good to expect from him, and therefore had better have nothing to do with him.

A person with a lively sensibility, and honest mind, will not easily forget a material kindness received, or feel satisfied if he miss an opportunity of manifesting his thankfulness, and, if he can, of returning an equivalent benefit. It may not be in his power to make a return in actual value, but he will do it as far as he is able; at any rate he will from time to time, by his demeanour, afford his benefactor the pleasure of knowing that his bounty has not been forgotten or despised.

In our Lesson on Benevolence we have remarked on the relation between parent and child, as producing the most important exercise of benevolence; and we may now advert to the same relationship in examining the grateful returns which it ought to experience. To consider affection and gratitude as due from children to parents, merely because they are the authors of their being, seems unreasonable; for there are parents, who caring only for their own gratification, accustom their children to scenes of intemperance and depravity, neither giving them the education, nor setting them the example which would incite them to support themselves, and to become useful members of society. Indeed there are too many fathers and mothers, who wallowing in the lowest depths of vice and wretchedness, train up their miserable offspring to beggary and theft, as a regular mode of subsistence. Persons who thus disregard their parental duties, and pervert their authority, can have no claims to gratitude from their children. But these are exceptions to a prevailing rule, which to the honour of human nature, is far different. Taking parents as they usually are, we find them labouring hard to provide for the welfare of their children. We see them intent upon their

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education, and anxious to train them in that course of life which seems best suited to their capacity, and to the opportunities which the parent may have of aiding them. And, very frequently, the parents persist in sacrificing their own health and comfort in unremitting exertions to acquire ease and competence for their offspring.

Important and long continued acts of benevolence like these surely impose a large debt of Gratitude on the child, the least return he can make is affectionately to receive, and patiently to consider, the parental counsel which is offered for his good, not to cast it from him in negligence or waywardness, to remember that his parents have enjoyed many years of matured judgment, while his discriminating faculties are yet scarcely developed, that they having lived through several seasons of life, are better able to determine what is suitable for his permanent welfare than himself, who, as yet, is as immature in judgment as in years. This attention to the counsel of parents, particularly applies to the choosing of a trade or profession. The youth who is bent upon a particular pursuit which the parent disapproves, should endeavour to remember how he would have decided if left to himself some years before; a making of sweetmeats would probably have been his first choice, a year or two after he may remember that he would have liked to be a drummer or fifer, in another year or two, the riding and driving of a groom or coachman would probably have been his delight. When he recollects those changes he may learn to mistrust the durability of his present fancy, and may reasonably imagine that his parent who has had experience in all of these and many after changes of inclination, if he have carefully studied his bodily and mental faculties, and his disposition, is much better qualified than himself to judge what line of life he will be most likely to succeed in, and rest satisfied with, when arrived at maturity.

But when the child becomes a man, and is called upon to think and act for himself, the implicit obedience which is the duty of childhood is no longer to be expected. Still where the mind of the parent continues to be employed for his offspring's welfare, his advice is entitled to respectful attention, not only because the debt of Gratitude remains undischarged, but because the counsel proceeds from his oldest benefactor, of whose sincere and disinterested regard he can have no doubt, and whose experience is far greater than his own. This deference is particularly due in the choosing of a wife or husband, because in youth the ardour of the tender passion is too strong for the slight reins of youthful reason to control. The lover foresees nothing but enjoyment in the possession of his idol, he can discover no defects in mind or morals, in temper or manners, in habits or connexions. He can imagine no variableness in his desires, no end to his transports, no misery, when the wants of a family are beyond his means of supply.

But the parents have lived through the love season, and they would moderate its ardour, not because they have forgotten its potent agency, but because they remember how quickly the romance of excited sensibility vanishes away. They have noticed that where young people marry under the impulse of unbridled passion, their ardent love most frequently cools into indifference, or changes into hate.

Before they approve of a contract for life, they therefore wish to see a mutual affection founded on real merits and congenial dispositions, and a fair prospect of ability to bring up a family in a manner approaching the condition of life in which the young people themselves have been brought up. If, however, they persist in marrying in opposition to their parents' advice, and regardless of their feelings and wishes, they act ungratefully; and, at

any rate, disentitle themselves to any further bestowal of their bounty.

The debts of Gratitude above spoken of go no further than the child's using the parental benevolence for his own benefit, instead of wasting or rejecting it, and parents generally would be content with that return only. But more is due. The parent who has well performed his duty, is entitled to his children's kindest attentions and assistance at all times; and when he fall into the helplessness of age, should he need a return of some part of that support which he largely bestowed on them in their season of helplessness, and they can afford to give it, it surely ought not to be denied *.

To Instructors, who have been diligent and anxious for our improvement; to Patrons, who have been zealous for our advancement; to Employers, who have afforded us a continued preference; to Servants and Tenants, who have been faithful to our interests; to all Friends, who have proved true; and to all Neighbours and Acquaintances, who have been kind and obliging, feelings of Gratitude are justly due.

To all Functionaries of the state, who discharge their high duties with vigilance and justice, and with a disinterested regard for the public weal, the Gratitude of the country ought to be ever felt and acknowledged.

But, above all, toward our Almighty Creator and Preserver, we naturally raise our warmest feelings of Gratitude for His inestimable goodness in giving us power over the rest of His creatures on earth, and endowing us with reason to comprehend, and feelings to enjoy, the innumerable blessings which His goodness has bestowed.

* This obligation does not extend to parents who seek ease and indulgence for themselves from their children's toil. Infant Prodigies are generally produced by an infant slavery, which is undeserving of encouragement.

EXTRACTS.

DEUTERONOMY, XXVII., 16. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother; and all the people shall say, Amen. EPHESIANS, VI., 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

CONFUCIUS.-When thou dost homage to any one, see that thy submissions be proportional to the homage thou owest him: there are stupidity and pride in doing too little; but, in overacting it, there are abjectness and hypocrisy.-A magistrate ought to honour his father and mother; he ought never to faulter in this just duty; his example ought to instruct the people. He ought not to contemn old persons, nor persons of merit; the people may imitate him.—A child ought to be under a continual apprehension of doing something that may displease his father; this fear ought always to possess him. In a word, he ought to act, in whatever he undertakes, with so much precaution, that he may never offend him, or afflict him.

PLATO *.-The fear of God is the foundation of that duty which children owe their parents; and if the gods are pleased

* Plato, one of the most illustrious philosophers of antiquity, and the founder of the academic sect, was born in the island of Ægina, in the 88th Olympiad, or B. C. 430. In his youth he applied to poetry and painting; both which pursuits he relinquished to become a disciple of Socrates. During the imprisonment of his master, Plato attended him, and committed to writing his last discourses upon the Immortality of the Soul. He then retired to Megara; after which he extended his travels to Magna Græcia and Egypt. On his return to Athens, he formed his school in a grove, called the Academy, over the door of which seminary was this inscription, "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here." He was soon attended by a crowd of hearers of every description, and among other illustrious names to be ranked among his disciples, are those of Dion, Aristotle, Hyperides, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, and Isocrates. The ancients thought more highly of him than of all their philosophers, and always called him the Divine Plato. Tully, whose regard and veneration for him were boundless, observes that he was justly called by Pantius, the divine, the most wise, the most sacred, the Homer of philosophers; and made him so implicitly his guide in wisdom and philosophy, as to declare, that he had rather err with Plato, than be right with any one else. He thrice visited the court of Sicily: once invited by the elder Dionysius, and twice by the younger. The former he so much offended, that the tyrant caused him to be seized on his passage home, and sold for a slave; and the philosopher was indebted for his liberation to Aniceris of Cyrene. On his return to Athens, Plato resumed his school, and no persuasion could afterwards induce him to quit his peaceful retirement. At his death, which happened in his 79th year, B. C. 348, statues and altars were erected to his memory; and the day of his birth was long celebrated as a festival.