Upon these accounts it may be utterly impoffible for any one elfe to prefcribe to a parent a rule of provifion for his children, either as to kind or to quality; but it will not be difficult for himself to do it, "taking these things in confideration. Only let him not be unmindful of these two things, that he never educate his children, above the provifion he defigns to make for them, and that he inure them to labour, diligence, and industry, to attention and application as they are capable of bearing; this is common to all qualities and conditions; this must go along with all children, the pooreft are not too mean for these qualities, nor the richest above them. Education of children above the provifion intended to be made for them, will flacken their diligence and indaftry, upon prefumption there will not be fo great occafion for them. The difappointment will alfo be great and troublesome, and the children reap no manner of advantage by it: it being much more eafy to bear with a mean condition conftantly, than to fall into it from a plentiful and good one, which is the cafe of people better educated than provided for. The foft and tender ufage of them while young, and capable of undergoing labour and hardship, is truly a difkindnefs to them, without an answerable provifion for them afterwards. Because, whenever they are left to fhift for themfelves they are no better than exposed, naked as it were and defenceless, unable to procure a livelihood, and in much worfe condition than their inferiors. This is the misfortune frequently of being born of an ancient and genteel family, or of parents, prefumed to be much richer than they truly are. Their name, quality, and reputation entail upon them mifery and want; they must be all bred, as if they were to inherit great eftates, when their inheritance is to be nothing but a name that does them mifchief. This is not defigned a kindness to the children, but generally proceeds from pride and vanity, which make the children mean and miserable in deed, deed, for fear the parents should be thought fo. It is one of the unkindelt things a parent can do to breed his children up in delicacy and foftnefs, while they are young and ftrong, and then to leave them to themfelves, to work their fortune out of weakness and folly; it is very ill for the richest parents that are, to deal too tenderly with their children, let them leave them as well provided for as they can; but it is great cruelty in parents that are able to leave them little or nothing, to leave them pride and laziness, and an incapacity both of body and mind to do themselves any fervice; as if the reproach and blame, that muft unavoidably fall on thefe unkind parents, were not more to be respected and feared, than the reputation of having a fmall eftate, and being unable to leave them a confiderable fortune. This is apparently preferring their own fame to the true and lafting benefit of their children, in a material point, which is a very ill way of providing for them And these people, of appearing fashion and quality, though to be pitied more, are as much to be blamed as the poorer fort, who will not inure their children to labour and clofe application, because their inability to provide for them according to their quality and condition, will not excufe them for neglecting to do as they are able. The effects of this unadvised way of education are fo remarkably bad, that it is a wonder men should need any caution against it. The male children either fall into the meaneft of fervitude, the refuge of the idle and uninftructed part of mankind, or betake themselves in defpair to the wars abroad, or to robberies at home. The female fall too often into the hands of wicked tempters, thro' want of ability to employ themfelves in honeft courfes, and an utter incapacity of maintaining their condition; their poverty making them unfit for their equals, and their foft expenfive education making their inferiors afraid to match with them; befides the hazard of bringing the fpirit of a good family along with them. Thefe Thefe are fome of the natural mifchiefs of a parent's educating his children much above the provifion he is able, or willing to make for them; fufficient to discourage any one from doing it, confidering how much eafier it is to advance and rife above our hopes, than to fall from our expectations; and how much kinder it is to leave our children fatisfaction and content, if not furprife and pleasure, than grief and fhame upon their difappointment. There is alfo the oppofite extreme which is not to be forgotten, and that is a mean and fordid education, when parents design to leave or cannot help the leaving their children a great fortune. This humour is not directly to be charged as a fin, but it is a fad indecency, and piece of indifcretion; a thing that has often very ill confequences, and cannot eafily have good; for the young people either feeing good reafon to hope, or finding it certain, that they fhall one day fucceed to a fortune fuperior to the condition they are educated in, do either begin to defpife or to neglect their bufinefs; they think themselves above their calling, or imagine they shall stand in little need of its affistance, and upon either account flacken their care and industry, withdraw their minds from their proper concerns, grow very quickly bad fervants, and as foon as they come to liberty and estate, fall into all extravagance, and mal e a very ill ufe of both. In a word, a mean and fordid education with the profpect of a plentiful condition to follow, will hardly escape one of these two extremes ; either by use they will contract a mean and fordid fpirit, and in the midft of plenty live fo wretched and penurious a life, that a mean eftate had been fufficient and most proper; or elfe there will too much time be loft in the way they are in, they will fhake off their condition, betake themselves to loose and profufe courfes, and be undone by too great plenty. A prudent parent will therefore carefully avoid both thefe extremes, and not educate his children much above or much below the provifion he defigns to make for them; and that this may not feem to be out of the way, it is, if well confidered, the fureft means of rendering the provifions they make most serviceable and useful to their children; children will be encouraged to profecute their bufinefs with induftry and application, knowing their parents will take care to further and help them according to their beginnings; and yet that fuch help and affiftance of itself will not fuffice, without their own great care and induftry, which will also be a fpur on that fide. They must not be wanting to themselves no more than their parents will be, and then their affairs are like to fucceed: for if they either perceive their parents unable to go through as they begun, they are difcouraged, grieved, and afhamed, and upon that grow defperately careless; or if able to do above what their prefent condition requires, they then grow, as was before obferved, intolerably negligent, weary of their way, and longing after liberty, which being unfeafonably obtained, is commonly used intemperately. Parents, in making provifion for their children, fhould first fit them with an education fuitable to it, keep a mean without either over or under doing the matter; for fince they are obliged in duty to provide for them, they ought in reafon and prudence to take all the care they can to render fuch provifion the most serviceable and ufeful to them. The other thing a parent fhould not be unmindful of, is this, that whatever great provifion he intends to make for his children, he do by all means inure them to diligence and induftry, to application and attention of mind; thefe qualities may chance to make fome amends for the defect of money or eftate, but no provifion will fupply the defect of them. Many emerge by thefe out of great difficulties and ftraits, and make their way to plenty and profperity; many more for want of thefe decline from plenty to much mifery. No fortune is above ́them, nor can continue well without them. There can be be no better reafon affigned, why fo many people of fashion are distinguished, as much by their vices, as their birth and quality, from their inferiors, than that they are fo foftly educated, and fall into the worst of hands, their own, fo foon; there is a great deal of care, and time, and money, oft expended on them, but it does not fuceeed fo well with them, because they must not be preft to any thing, they must take what they will, and never be conftrained to any thing laborious and difficult; a clofe attention and application would break their fpirits quickly, and they would never love their bufinels again: this is the opinion of fond and ignorant people, and quickly agreed to by the young ones, who are always afraid of being overcharged as well as their parents, and think their hearts will break a great deal fooner than they will. A mifcarriage of this kind does feldom or never happen, if things are well enquired into. The miscarriages are generally for want of this attention and clofe application; thefe fort of people will unavoidably have liberty enough betimes, and therefore may well bear with restraint and labour beforehand for a feason. If they are not taught how to employ their time in fomething fit and worthy of them while they are young, they will never know how to do it when they grow up, and are wholly mafters of it; wherefore parents, who are only careful to provide eftates for their children, do really forget half of their bufinefs, which is to fit their children for their eftates. Now fince it is neither fit or decent, or at leaft notcuftomary to put thefe people of quality to trades or fettled callings, it must needs be worse with them, than their inferiors, if they have not fomething equivalent to fuch employments, to quicken their induftryand diligence, to keep them bufied and amufed, as profitably as they can, to inure them to the labours of the mind, and fit them for fervices, that may in time be proper for them. There is nobody but is born and obliged to ferve his country in fome capacity or other, and they who are most |