ABSTRACT
Our childhood passed as usual under the mother's government. We were taught to reverence our father, whose care of us then consisted chiefly in the gravity and decorum of his comportment, order and sobriety of life whereby no indecent and mischievous impressions took place with us from his example, and when he deposed his temper, and condescended to entertain the little credulous impertinents, it was with an agreeable as well as moral effect, tending either to instruct or encourage what was good, and to defy the contrary; which is not only a care but a skill in parents to do, without relucting94 the tender minds of children by the austerity of commands and threats. The constant reward of blessing, which was observed as sacred, was a petit regale95 in his closet, and that always came as a reward of what was to be encouraged, and denied when demerited.
