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

Duty of Parents. 225
Ination of these virtues be well founded, it must be
owing not ~o their inferior impojiGnt~~ but to som;
defect or impurity in the motive. And inatcl It
cannot be denied, but that it is in the power of mlociation,
so to unite our ('hildren's interest with our
own, as that we should often pursue both from the
same motive, 'place both in· the same object, and
with as little sense of duty in one pursuit as in tbe
other. \Vhere this is the case, the judgment above
stated is not far from the truth. And so often as we
find a solicitous care of a man's own family, in a total
absence or extreme penury of every other virtue,
or inteifering with other duties, or directing its
operation solely to the temporal happiness of the children,
placing that happiness and amusement in indulgence
whilst they are young, or in advancement of
fort:lne when they grow up, there is reason to belie".,e
that .this is the case. In this way the common
opinion concerning these duties may. pe ~ accounted
for and defended. If we look to the -subject of
them, we perceive them to be indi~ensable: if we
regard the motive, we find them often not very meritorious.
Wherefore, although a man seldom riseS" high
in Otlr esteem \vho has nothing to recommend him
beside the care of his own family, yet \ve always condemn
the neglect of this duty with the utmost severity
; both by reason of the manifest and immediate mis ..
chief which we see arising from this neglect, and because
it argues a want not only of parental affection,
but of those moral principles s which ought to come
in aid of that affection, where it is wanting. And
if, on the other hand, our praise and esteem of these
duties be not proportioned to the good they produce,
or to the indignation with which we resent the ab.
sence of them, it is for this reason, that virtue is
the most valuable, not where it prod'lres the luost
good, but where it is the most want~d; Wllich is
not the case here; because its place is often s'opplied
by instincts, or involuntary as:rociations. ~~~verthe.
less, the offices of a parent may be discharged frem ~