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prichio, paffion or fancy, that you command or forbid them any thing. This they are capable of un lerlanding; and there is no virtue they should be excited to, nor fault they fhould be kept from, which I do not think they may be convinced of; but it must be by fuch reafons as their age and understanding are capable of, and thofe propofed always in very few and plain words. The foundations on

which feveral duties are built, and the foun. tains of right and wrong from which they fpring, are not perhaps cafily to be let into the minds of grown men, not used to abftract their thoughts from common received opinions. Much lefs are children capable of reafonings from remote principles. They cannot conceive the force of long deductions. The reafons that move them, must be obvious, and level to their thoughts, and fuch as may (if I may fo fay) be felt, and touched. But yet, if their age, temper, and inclination be confidered, there will never want fuch motives, as may be fufficient to convince them. If there be no other more particular, yet thefe will always be intelligible, and of force to deter them from any fault, fit to be taken notice of in them, (viz.) That it will be a difcredit and difgrace to them, and displease you.

§ 82. But of all the ways where

by children are to be inftructed, Examples. and their manners formed, the

plaincft,

plaineft, easiest, and most efficacious, is, to fet before their eyes the examples, of thofe things you would have them do, or avoid; which, when they are pointed out to them, in the practice of perfons within their knowledge, with fome reflexions on their beauty and unbecomingness, are of more force to draw or deter their initation, than any difcourfes, which can be made to them. Virtues and vicescan by no words be fo plainly fet before their understandings, as the actions of other men will shew them, when you direct their obfervation, and bid them view this or that good or bad quality in their practice. And the

beauty or uncomeliness of many things, in good and ill breeding, will be better learnt, and make deeper impreffions on them, in the examples of others, than from any rules or inftructions that can be given about them.

This is a method to be used, not only whil they are young, but to be continued even as long as they fhall be under another's tuition or conduct; nay, I know not whether it be not the best way to be used by a father, as long as he should think fit, on any occafion, to reform any thing he wishes mended in his fon; nothing finking fo gently, and fo deep, i to men's minds, as example. And what ill they either overlook or indulge in themfelves, they cannot but diflike, and be a

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fhamed

fhamed of, when it is fet before them in another.

§ 83. It may be doubted, con

cerning whipping, when as the Whipping. laft remedy, it comes to be ne

ceffary; at which times, and by whom it fhould be done: whether prefently upon the committing the fault, whilft it is yet fresh and hot; and whether parents themselves fhould beat their children. As to the first, I think it fhould not be done prefently, left paffion mingle with it; and fo, though it exceed the just proportion, yet it lofes of its due weight: for even children difcern when we do things in paffion. But, as I faid before, that has moft weight with them, that appears fedately to come from their parent's reafon; and they are not without this diftinction. Next, if you. have any discreet fervant capable of it, and has the place of governing your child, (for if you have a tutor, there is no doubt) I think it is beft the finart fhould come immediately from another's hand, though by the parent's order, who should fee it done; where-by the parent's authority will be preserved, and the child's averfion, for the pain it fuf-. fers, rather to be turned on the perfon that in mediately inflicts. For I would have a father feldom frike his child, but upon very urgent neceffity, and as the laft remedy;

and

and then perhaps it will be fit to do it fo, that the child should not quickly forget it.

§ 84. But, as I faid before, beating is the worft, and therefore the laft means to be ufed in the correction of children, and that only in cafes of extremity, after all gentle ways have been tried, and proved unfuccessful ; which, if well obferved, there will be very feldom any need of blows. For, it not being to be imagined, that a child will often, if ever, difpute his father's prefent command in any particular inftance, and the father not interpofing his abfolute authority, in peremptory rules, concerning either childish or indifferent actions, wherein his fon is to have his liberty, or concerning his learning or improvement, wherein there is no compulfion to be uled there remains only the prohibition of fome vicious actions, wherein a child is capa ble of obftinacy, and confequently can deferve beating; and fo there will be but very few occafions of that difcipline to be used by any one, who confiders well, and orders his child's education as it should be. For the firft feven years, what vices can a child be guilty of, but lying, or fome ill natured tricks; the repeate ed commiffion whereof, after his father's direct command againft, fhall bring him into. the condemnation of obftinacy, and the chaf tisement of the rod? If any vicious inclination in him be, in the first appearance and inftances.

inftances of it, treated as it should be, first with your wonder, and then, if returning again, a fecond time difcountenanced with the fevere brow of a father, tutor, and all about him, and a treatment fuitable to the state of difcredit before mentioned, and this continued till he be made fentible and afhamed of his fault, I imagine there will be no need of any other correction, nor ever any occafion to come to blows. The neceffity of fuch chaf tifement is ufually the confequence only of former indulgences or neglects: if vicious inclinations were watched from the beginning, and the first irregularities, which they cause, corrected by thofe gentler ways, we fhould feldom have to do with more than one diforder at once; which would easily fet right, without any ftir or noife, and not require fo harfh a discipline as beating. Thus one by one, as they appeared, they might all be weeded out, without any figns or memory that ever they had been there. But we letting their faults (by indulging and humouring our little ones) grow up, till they are sturdy and numerous, and the deformity of them makes us afhamed and uneafy, we are fain to come to the plough and the harrow, the spade and the pick ax must go deep to come at the root; and all the force, skill, and diligence we can ufe, is fcarce enough to cleanfe the vitiated feed plat, overgrown with weeds, and reftore

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