ABSTRACT
The rights of kings are deduced in a direct line from the King of kings; and that of parents from our first parent. This chapter distinguishes between the natural and accidental duty due to parents. The parent, who sedulously endeavours to form the heart and enlarge the understanding of his child, has given that dignity to the discharge of a duty, common to the whole animal world, that only reason can give. Females, it is true, in all countries, is too much under the dominion of their parents; and few parents think of addressing their children in the manner, though it is in this reasonable way that Heaven seems to command the whole human race. The duty expected from them is, like all the duties arbitrarily imposed on women, more from a sense of propriety, more out of respect for decorum, than reason; and thus taught slavishly to submit to their parents, they are prepared for the slavery of marriage.
