Page:Vindication Women's Rights (Wollstonecraft).djvu/274

268 a rational being to the mere will of another, after he is of age to anwer to ociety for his own conduct, is a mot cruel and undue tretch of power; and, perhaps, as injurious to morality as thoe religious ytems which do not allow right and wrong to have any exitence, but in the Divine will.

I never knew a parent who had paid more than common attention to his children, diregarded ; on the contrary, the early habit of relying almot implicitly on the opinion of a repected parent is not eaily hook, even when matured reaon convinces the child that his father is not the wiet man in the world. This weaknes, for a weaknes it is, though the epithet amiable may be tacked to it, a reaonable man mut teel himelf againt; for the aburd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent, hackles the mind, and prepares it for a lavih ubmiion to any power but reaon.

I ditinguih between the natural and accidental duty due to parents.

The parent who eduouly endeavours to form the heart and enlarge the undertanding of his child, has given that dignity to the dicharge of a duty, common to the whole animal world, that only reaon can give. This is the parental affection of humanity, and leaves intinctive natural affection far behind. Such a parent acquires all the rights of the mot acred friendhip, and his advice, even when his child is advanced in life, demands erious conideration. With&ensp;