Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/80

 few have leisure to attend to or power to execute; but, most of all, on circumstances which no parent can controul; and next, on examples such as discreet and virtuous parents in any situation of life are enabled to give, and give indeed unconsciously. The second essay encourages the parent to use without scruple the power of influencing the opinions of his child which God and nature have put into his hands, and not to believe on the word of certain speculatists, that it is either necessary or desirable to abstain from imbuing his offspring with what he conceives to be important and salutary truths, from the dread of instilling prejudices and crippling the efforts of his infant reason. In these excellent productions we are uncertain which most to admire, the sagacious and discriminating intellect, the practical good sense and acute observation of life which suggest the remarks, or the spirited and