it.

Wife. How do you make that out, that I have omitted

Husb. You shall have unanswerable evidence immedi ately for your conviction. Come hither, Harry; come hither, my dear.

[He calls the little boy, and examines him.] Fath. Who made you, my dear?

Child. God.

Fath. Who told you so?

Child. You did, papa.

Fath. When, my dear?

Child. Just now, papa.

Fath. Did nobody ever tell you so before?

Child. No, papa.

Moth. Sirrah, did not I tell you so?

Child. No, mamma.

Moth. Nor nurse neither?

Child. No, mamma.

Moth. You tell a lie, sirrah.

Child. No, indeed, mamma.

Husb. Nay, my dear, children are fools, you know, &c. Wife. I am sure he tells an untruth now.

Husb. Why, my dear, do not be angry with the child; for I asked him over and over who made him? and he said, he could not tell; then I asked him if nobody ever told him? and he said, no; and if he had not answered me so, which a little surprised me, and troubled me too, I should not have committed this invasion upon your office.

Wife. Well, well, there is time enough to teach him all that; he is not three years old.

Husb. My dear, I thank God, it is yet early enough; but never let you and I dispute about whose work it is to instruct our children. If we do our duty, and instruct them well, it will find us both work enough, as they grow up: we shall be glad to help one another, and not think it an encroachment upon our office.

Wife. But it is nonsense to meddle with children at three years old: they will answer like parrots, and say what they are bid; but they understand nothing of what they say.

Husb. With submission, my dear, that is a mistake: an awe and sense of the greatness and majesty of God, and the fear we ought to have of offending him, is capable of being received by a child as soon as it can speak.

Wife. I do not see it is to any manner of purpose.
Husb. My dear, does he know you?

Wife. Yes, to be sure.

Husb. Does he know you have a rod, and that he must not be a naughty boy; and that if he does, he will make you angry, and you must correct him?

Wife. What's all that to the purpose?

Husb. By the same rule he is capable of receiving due impressions of his Maker.

Wife. Not at all.

Husb. No doubt, as soon as God has impowered his soul to receive any knowledge at all, it is our duty to help him to receive some knowledge of God: besides, my dear, you are not ignorant how soon a little infant will be taught to sin; and I think we ought to study to be before hand with the devil, and lay a foundation of good in our children be fore he can get in to lay a foundation of evil.

Wife. You are wiser than I, to be sure: and therefore you thought fit to begin, as you suppose, before me; but to be sure, before you inquired of me, or consulted with me any thing about it.

Husb. You are disposed to be angry, my dear; my comfort is, you have no reason, and that I have done nothing but what I think my duty, and not even that, with a design to displease you.

Wife. You fancy yourself very obliging.

Husb. I would be always so to you, my dear.

Wije. Mighty obliging, indeed! in letting me go

alone always. I suppose you are ashamed of your wife: if you had, you should not have taken me. I did not court you.

Husb. My dear, I never let you go alone, but to places which I cannot agree to go to, such as the play-house, and to my Lady , where you know the company, and the gaming, are things I have not been bred to, and cannot comply with.

Wife. What, your conscience will not let you play a game at cards?

Husb. My dear, suppose it would, as to the simple action, yet I own it will not as to its circumstances.

Wife. What circumstances, I beseech you?

Husb. Why, first, I can employ my time better; and they that know the value of time, and the haste we are all making to eternity, will think themselves obliged to waste as little of their time as they can, and think it their duty always to employ it in the best manner they can possibly.

Wife. I think time spent in good company is not misspent.

Husb. My dear, when you come nearer the end of your time, you will think otherwise.

Wife. That's more than you are sure of.

Husb. For your sake, my dear, I hope you will; it will be a sad day for you, if you should not, and for me too, if I should live to see it.

Wife. Well, that is but one of your niceties; pray where are the rest?

Husb. Why, my dear, it is true, I have other scruples; and my second is this:-I am now a father, and a master of a family, and have servants and children growing up: I have duties upon me now, which were not my duties before, and particularly family-worship. Thirdly, I am obliged in duty to set no evil example either to children or servants: but, on the contrary, to let my conversation be in all things exemplary, that I may not have either my ser

vants or children justify themselves in any excesses by my example.

Wife. What's all this to lawful things, such as visiting a friend, seeing at play, or playing a game a cards? Those things that you speak of, relate to unlawful excesses only; such as drunkenness, lewdness, and such things as these.

Husb. Aye, and other things too; and those circumstances make some things unlawful to me, which are not so in themselves; particularly, my dear, you stay there at cards till one or two in the morning; if I did so, 1 must neglect my duty in my family, and cause a game at cards to supersede the worship of God; would not that game of cards be a sin?

Wife. Yes, yes, I told you, at Sir Anthony's, you must go home, and say your prayers.

Husb. That was not the kindest thing that ever you said to me in your life, my dear.

Wife. I shall always use you so, when you are so rude to me, to leave the company.

Husb. Then I hope you will excuse me from going again, my dear.

Wife. You may stay away, if you please.

Husb. Indeed, my dear, I must stay away, or offend you by coming away before you; for I cannot dispense with my duty to God upon any account whatsoever. I am very sorry you will not take that for a sufficient excuse.

Wife. What need you make any excuses to me? any thing will serve to a wife, you know.

Husb. I am very loth to disoblige you, my dear, and therefore I am giving you just reasons for my behaviour in every part, that your own judgment may oblige you to say you have no cause to take it ill.

Wife. Other husbands do not live so; do you think any body but me have their husbands go to play-house doors with them, and then run away and leave them?

Husb. Indeed, my dear, I cannot comply with you in that part, and told you so before I married you. If you

will excuse me going to the door with you, I shall take it very kindly; but as for going to the plays, as I said of playing at cards, I can much better employ my time.

Wife. Yes, yes, you can go home to your prayers; I wonder you don't make your prayers an excuse for going to dinner.

Husb. My dear, I am sorry to hear you make a jest and scoff at praying to God. You never heard me make an excuse for doing any thing that becomes me to do, in my life. I am none of those that make a show or a boast of my duty. I entreat you upon what do you ground this banter? Did I ever tell you, when I carried you to the play-house, that I must go home to my prayers. I tell you plainly, and did so before we were married, I go to no plays; but I never said, I did not because I must go to my. prayers.

Wife. No, no, but your spending your time better, implies it; for can you spend it better than in your prayers? and you say you are always to spend your time as well as you can.

Husb. You talk to me of my praying, my dear, as if I were a mere Pharisee, and said my prayers at the corner of every street.

Wife. You make more ado about them a great deal, I think, than you need.

Husb. I make no boast of them, nor do you know any more of them than needful family-worship requires. If 1 offered any such thing as private prayer with you, I fear you would but make a mock of it.

Wife. No, no, not I; you may pray all night and all day too, if you please; for you know you are to spend all your time as well as you can.

Husb. My dear, there are duties in a Christian life for every part of time without letting them interfere one with another and yet, my dear, when you are. at the play, I don't know whether it might not be as proper a