Page:Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society - Volume 1.djvu/82

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1. Teach filial piety, and fidelity: Nature gives to all, whether scholars, farmers, mechanics, or merchants, a connatural sense of the four virtues, expressed by four words:

2. Cultivate talent; and schools are the places to foster talent. I hold public schools to be of first importance. Why so slow in assisting, where aid is required!—I will subscribe my salary to assist poor districts to establish public schools; and let the Foo districts subscribe 200 taels, and the Chih-le-Chow districts 150 taels, and the Keen districts 100 taels, and all the local officers according to their ability; and let them take the lead, and induce the country gentlemen to come forward, and manage the concerns, &c.

3. Respect the aged.

4. The gentry are the hope of the poor people: let them instruct them, and guide them, &c.

5. Let the rich, who derived their wealth from their ancestors, assist their poor kindred, &c.

6. Let the poor remember, that poverty or riches are according to the decree of Heaven, and let them be content, &c.

7. Let merchants and traders deal fairly and honestly, &c.

8. Instruct mothers to teach their children. Early instructions are second nature.

9. Since women do not learn to read, let fathers and husbands instruct their wives and daughters, on whom the rise, or ruin, of the family depends. The duties of women are chiefly these; to be dutiful to their husbands' parents, to respect their husbands; to agree with their sisters; to teach their children; to be diligent in weaving and spinning; to prepare repasts of wine and food: these are all. When principles of virtue are established, they will be good wives and mothers, and chaste, and an honour to their family; but if they are indulged, and left uninstructed, they will, one day, become lewd; their virtue be ruined, and their parents be disgraced.