PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

224 D~/y of P are1lis •
to the marriage of sons, until th. y attain to thirty
years of age; of daughters, until twenty .. five. In
Holland, for sons till twenty-five; for daughters, till
twenty. And this distinction between the sexes appears
tc he well founded, for a woman is usuaUy as
prop(~r1y qualified for the domestic and interior duties
of a wife or mother at eighteen, as a man is for
the business of the world and the more arduous- care
of providing for a family at twenty-one.
The constitution also of the human species indicates
the same distinction.·
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE DUTY OF PARENTS.
THAT virtue, which conti.'1es its beneficence
wit.1Un the walls of a man's own hous~, we have been
accustomed to consider as little betttr than a more
refined selfishness; and yet it will be confessed, that
the subject and matter of this class of duties are inferior
to none, in utility and importance : and where,
it may be asked, is virtue the most valuable, but
where it does the m05t good? What duty is the most
obligatory, but that, on which the most depends?
And where have we happiness and misery so much
in our power, or liable to be so affected by our CODduct,
as in our own families? It will also be acknowl.
edged s that the good order and happiness of the
world are better upheld) whilst each man applies
llimselfto his own concerns anfli the care of his own
family, to which he is present, than if every maD,
from an excess of mistaken gener~ity,
should leave
his own business, to undertake his neighbour'S,
which he must always manage with less knowledge,
cOllveniency, and success. If, therefore, the low esti •
., Cum vis proJem procrcancJi diutiu!j hzreat in mare quam in f«mlina,
p.npuli numerus oeql1aquam minuetur, si :~rjus venercm (olerc inceperillt
"lrt.