Page:Power of affection.pdf/9

(9) To ſee a father treating his ſons like an elder brother, and to ſee ſons covet their father's company and converſation, becauſe they think him the wiſeſt and moſt agreeable man of their acquaintance, is the moſt amiable picture the eye can behold; it is a tranſplanted ſelf love, as ſacred as friendſhip, as pleaſurable as religion can make it.

Ifevery father remembered his own thoughts and inclinations when he was a ſon, and every ſon remembered what he expected from his father, when he himſelf was in a ſtate of dependency; this one reflection would keep fathers from being rigid, or ſons diſſolute.

EXAMPLES. T. Manlius, the Roman dictator, having exerciſed great violence and cruelty over the citizens, was cited at the expiration of his office to anſwer for his conduct. Among other things that were laid to his charge, he was accuſed of treating with barbarity one of his own ſons. Manlius, it ſeems, had no other cauſe of complaint againſt his ſon than his having an impediment in his ſpeech. For this reaſon he was baniſhed far from the city, from his home, and the company of thoſe of his own age and fortune, and condemned to ſervile works, and a priſon like a ſlave. All were highly exaſperated againſt so ſevere a dictator, and ſo inhuman a father, except the ſon himſelf, who,