trifling matter gave his father very saucy and undutiful language. The father with a smile of compassion upon his folly, returned thus: Son, if I was not very angry with you, I would teach you better manners this minute; but I will give myself time till to-morrow. Before to-morrow, the son relented, humbled humself, and prevented the correction he would certainly have had.

Fath. I can hardly think what you propose is possible to human nature..

Neigh. There is no question to be made of the possibility, if men would set seriously to work to govern their passions, reduce themselves to temper, and not be too hasty to act, even where they may think they have just occasion. Simeon and Levi had unquestionably a very just occasion to be angry, and they give the greatness of the provocation as an excuse for their unbounded rage, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot! Yet good Jacob, who knew that all excursions of human passions tended to sin, censured it as abominable; Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. And to this he added a terrible sentence, I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

Fath. I have heard much of men's governing their passions, but I see little of it in practice,-for my own part, I confess I have not the government of myself in a passion," any more than a drunken man has in his wine; but it is a trouble to me afterwards on many accounts,-particularly, I am fain to break all the hasty vows and rash resolutions I make in my passion, because if I do not I should ruin myself and all my family sometimes,-and that has often troubled me very much: but as to this of not correcting my children in a passion, I never considered it at all before. I begin to believe I have been in the wrong very much,and I think verily it is one reason why my children are so little the better for all the blows; and yet what with one or other of them, I think my hand or my tongue is seldom off them.

Neigh. As to governing the passions, it is a thing that would take up a long conference by itself, and I shall be glad to talk of it with you at any time; and particularly, I could tell you a melancholy story of a friend of mine and an acquaintance of yours, who is justly at this time in a dreadful extremity, between the wicked making of passionate Vows and wishes, and the necessity he is in of breaking them again, or destroying himself and his family; all which lie very heavy upon him.

Fath, I know who you mean I suppose, and I know the ther, about the marriage of case too, it is Mr. one of his children, he told me the case; but I am too guilty myself of such rash things, to be able to give him advice, I rather want advice.

Neigh. I cannot say I am fit to advise him, but I am sure he is not capable to advise himself,-and he has de sired a meeting with me and a friend or two of his, to talk about it.

Fath. I would be glad to be there, if I thought it was proper; I may perhaps stand in need of your admonition as well as be.

Neigh. It is not for me to introduce you; but if he brings you with him it is well enough.

Fath. I doubt not but I shall have his leave to come.

Neigh. But to return to the case in hand,-I desire to go back where we were just now: you said, that you thought you were not so out in yourself in your passions as I might imagine; and I have been arguing since that, upon a supposition, that it was so, and that you were master of yourself more than perhaps I imagined, and then perhaps is true, and yet I have proved to you, that even then, suppose you were in a passion at all, you ought not at all to correct your child till that passion was entirely cooled or gone. But now you must give me leave to tell I belive you were really in such a violent rage, that you scarce considered what you did, or what became of the child.

you,

that

Fath. No, no, you mistake me quite, I had not beaten him so violently; did not you hear my kinswoman, that keeps my house, call to me, and tell me, that I had not beaten him enough?

Neigh. Yes, I did hear a voice of one just doing the devil's work for him, throwing oil instead of water upon the fire, any one might have known it was not the mother of the child, nor the wife of the husband; I have scarce ever heard the like.

-

Fath. It is true, she is not their mother, but she loves' the children very well.

Neigh. Aye, perhaps very well, for a stranger.

Fath. Nay, she is no stranger, she is nearly related. Neigh. It is no matter for that, she has no principle from nature to dictate to her the affection of a mother, or a wife; had she been the mother, compassion to the child. would have moved her,-had she been a wife, compassion to you would have moved her.

Fath. She is a good Christian.

Neigh. If you had not said so, I should have believed quite otherwise of her.

Fath. Indeed I hope so, and I am sure she wishes the children very well.

Neigh. Then she must be a fool, for to be sure she knows nothing what belongs to education, much less to correction for as every father need be very careful not to mix his own passion and folly with his duty in correction, so every by-stander in the family, that has either affection to the duty, or to the party, will act the part of a mediator rather than an inflamer; and they that prompt the passions of the parent, are incendiaries in the family.

Fath. She is rather a good woman than a wise woman. Neigh. But can you say it was a right part for her to act, as the relation to the child, or as a relation to yon; did it please you to hear her?

and

Fath. I must own, I thought she might as well have held

her tongue,-I am apt enough to overdo the work, she needed not to prompt me.

Neigh. Indeed I perceived you did not give the boy one blow the more for her.

Fath. But I have given them all many a blow by her procurement, when I have had reason little enough, and when it has grieved me afterwards very much.

Neigh. She is of a mighty healing, spirit I find,-she vents her own resentments too, and only lays the drudgery of her passions upon you,---is that her being a mediator?

Fath. That is an office very few understand, nor is to be expected from house-keepers.

Neigh. And that makes the duty of a father the more difficult, where he is left destitute of the assistance of a mother to his children, and for that reason fathers ought to be very cautious of setting governesses over their children, and much more cautious of what authority they put into their hands: it is a dangerous thing to trust the corection of children to those who want the bonds of nature to tie their hands, however otherwise intrusted in the family children shall be often abused, but seldom corrected by such nor will the children ever fail, as they grow up, to remember the usage of that kind as injuries, not as acts of faithfulness to their trust. But that by the by. What I am now upon, is the duty of such family tyrants, in cooling the passions of a parent,—a true father is always glad of a mediator, to take off the edge of his passion.

Fath. That is true, and indeed I want that help as much as any man living,--but my house-keeper, though otherwise well enough, has not much of the tender part, she seldom takes a blow off from a child, but rather calls for laying more on, as you heard her.

Neigh. Then, as before, she is a firebrand in your family, and wants either to be taught the duty of her place, or be dismissed from it: her duty would be, when the child has committed a fault, to represent it as favourably and as

affectionately to you as possible,—to persuade you first of all not to resent it too much; if there was a necessity of correction, she should stand by in cool blood, and prevail with you to hold your hand, when perhaps you might not should so well govern your warmth,-and sometimes you permit her to rescue the child from you, you would thank God and her too for it afterwards.

Fath. That is in short, you would have her be a mother, which she is not, nor can be.

Neigh. Well, though she cannot have the natural tyes, yet prudence will teach her thus much, that by this she will gain deep root in the affections of the children, and that affection would give her words a double influence, which she might improve for their good; for when she has either concealed part of their guilt, or saved them from part of their punishment, she has room to persuade and argue with them to amend, and deserve no more what she delivered them from; and thus she would win upon their dispositions, and obtain an authority over them that you are not able to give her, I mean an influence on their affections; she would have a vast advantage to do them good.

Fath. Aye, but you do not know my children,-they all hate her.

Neigh. And why is that? but because she has not pracI know nothing of your tised this method with them. Go family affairs, but the nature of the thing dictates it. home, and ask any of your children the question, why do you not love your aunt?-I dare undertake, if the children dare be so free with you, they would answer because, sir, we know she sets you against us; and makes you angry with us when she need not, and when with a good word she might mend it,---and when we have done a fault, and you are justly angry, she always makes you more angry than you would be. Tell me now honestly, if you do no' think this will be the case?

Fath. I confess you have hit very exactly the thing, and