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No. 189.-On Unnatural Fathers and filial ingratitude.

Patriæ pietatis imago. VIRG. Æn. x. 824.

The following letter being written to my bookseller, upon a subject of which I treated some time since, I shall publish it in this paper, together with the letter that was inclosed in it.

'MR. BUCKLEY,

'Mr. Spectator having of late descanted upon the cruelty of parents to their children, I have been induced (at the request of several of Mr. Spectator's admirers) to inclose this letter, which I assure you is the original from a father to his own son, notwithstanding the latter gave but little or no pro10 vocation. It would be wonderfully obliging to the world, if Mr. Spectator would give his opinion of it in some of his speculations, and particularly to

6 SIRRAH,

'(Mr. Buckley)

'Your humble servant.'

'You are a saucy audacious rascal, and both fool and mad, and I care not a farthing whether you comply or no; that does not raze out my impressions of your insolence, going about railing at me, and the next day to solicit my favour: these are incon20 sistencies, such as discover thy reason depraved. To be brief, I never desire to see your face: and, Sirrah, if you go to the work-house, it is no disgrace to me for you to be supported there; and if you starve in the streets, I'll never give any thing underhand in your behalf. If I have any more of your scribbling nonsense, I'll break your head the first time I set sight on you. You are a stubborn beast: is this your gratitude for my giving you money? You rogue, I'll better your judgment, and give you a greater sense of your duty to (I regret to say), your father, &c.

30 'P. S.-It is prudence for you to keep out of my sight; for to reproach me that might overcomes right on the outside of your letter, I shall give you a great knock on the skull for it.'

Was there ever such an image of paternal tenderness! It was

1 The reference is to No. 181: omitted (except as to a part) from this selection.

LIKE FATHER LIKe son.

169

usual among some of the Greeks to make their slaves drink to excess, and then expose them to their children, who by that means conceived an early aversion to a vice which makes men appear so monstrous and irrational". I have exposed this picture of an unnatural father with the same intention, that its deformity may deter others from its resemblance. If the reader has a mind to see a father of the same stamp represented in the most exquisite strokes of humour, he may meet with it in one of the finest comedies that ever appeared upon the English stage; I 10 mean the part of Sir Samson in Love for Love".

I must not however engage myself blindly on the side of the son, to whom the fond letter above-written was directed. His father calls him a saucy and audacious rascal in the first line, and I am afraid upon examination he will prove but an ungracious youth. To go about railing at his father, and to find no other place but the outside of his letter to tell him that might overcomes right, if it does not discover his reason to be depraved, and that he is either fool or mad, as the choleric old gentleman tells him, we may at least allow that the father will do very well in endeavour20 ing to better his judgment, and give him a greater sense of his duty. But whether this may be brought about by breaking his head, or giving him a great knock on the skull, ought, I think, to be well considered. Upon the whole, I wish the father has not met with his match, and that he may not be as equally paired with a son as the mother in Virgil.

Crudelis tu quoque mater:
Crudelis mater magis, an puer improbus ille ?
Improbus ille puer, crudelis tu quoque mater.

Ecl. viii. 48.

30 Or like the crow and her egg, in the Greek proverb,

Κακοῦ κορακος κακὸν ὠόν.

Of a bad crow the bad egg.

I must here take notice of a letter which I have received from an unknown correspondent, upon the subject of my paper, upon which the foregoing letter is likewise founded. The writer of it seems very much concerned lest that paper should seem to give encouragement to the disobedience of children towards their parents; but if the writer of it will take the pains to read it over again attentively, I dare say his apprehensions will vanish. Par

don and reconciliation are all the penitent daughter requests, and all that I contend for in her behalf; and in this case I may use the saying of an eminent wit, who, upon some great men's pressing him to forgive his daughter, who had married against his consent, told them he could refuse nothing to their instances, but that he would have them remember there was a difference between giving and forgiving.

I must confess, in all controversies between parents and their children, I am naturally prejudiced in favour of the former. 10 The obligations on that side can never be acquitted, and I think it is one of the greatest reflexions upon human nature, that paternal instinct should be a stronger motive to love than filial gratitude; that the receiving of favours should be a less inducement to good-will, tenderness, and commiseration, than the conferring of them; and that the taking care of any person should endear the child or dependent more to the parent or benefactor, than the parent or benefactor to the child or dependent; yet so it happens, that for one cruel parent we meet with a thousand undutiful children. This is indeed wonderfully contrived (as I 20 have formerly observed) for the support of every living species; but at the same time that it shews the wisdom of the Creator, it discovers the imperfection and degeneracy of the creature.

The obedience of children to their parents is the basis of all government, and set forth as the measure of that obedience which we owe to those whom providence hath placed over us.

It is Father Le Compte1, if I am not mistaken, who tells us how want of duty in this particular is punished among the Chinese, insomuch that if a son should be known to kill, or so much as to strike his father, not only the criminal, but his whole 30 family, would be rooted out, nay, the inhabitants of the place where he lived would be put to the sword, nay, the place itself would be razed to the ground, and its foundation sown with salt: for, say they, there must have been an utter depravation of manners in that clan or society of people who could have bred up among them so horrid an offender. To this I shall add a passage out of the first book of Herodotus1. That historian, in his account of the Persian customs and religion, tells us, it is their opinion, that no man ever killed his father, or that it is possible such a crime should be in nature; but that if any thing like it 1 1 Chap. 137.

SOCRATES ON PRAYER.

171

should ever happen, they conclude that the reputed son must have been illegitimate, suppositious, or begotten in adultery. Their opinion in this particular shews sufficiently what a notion they must have had of undutifulness in general.-L.

No. 207.-On Prayer; counsel of Socrates on this head; his rules compared with the teaching of Christ.

Omnibus in terris, quæ sunt a Gadibus usque
Auroram et Gangem, pauci dignoscere possunt
Vera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remota
Erroris nebula.

Juv. Sat. x. I.

Look round the habitable world, how few
Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue.

DRYDEN.

In my last Saturday's paper1 I laid down some thoughts upon devotion in general, and shall here shew what were the notions of the most refined heathens on this subject, as they are represented in Plato's dialogue upon prayer, entitled Alcibiades the second, which doubtless gave occasion for Juvenal's tenth satire, 10 and to the second satire of Persius; as the last of these authors has almost transcribed the preceding dialogue, entitled Alcibiades the first, in his fourth satire.

The speakers in this dialogue upon prayer are Socrates and Alcibiades; and the substance of it (when drawn together out of the intricacies and digressions) as follows.

Socrates meeting his pupil Alcibiades, as he was going to his devotions, and observing his eyes to be fixed upon the carth with great seriousness and attention, tells him that he had reason to be thoughtful on that occasion, since it was possible for a man to 20 bring down evils upon himself by his own prayers, and that those things which the gods send him in answer to his petitions might turn to his destruction: this, says he, may not only happen when a man prays for what he knows is mischievous in his own nature, as Edipus implored the gods to sow dissension between his sons; but when he prays for what he believes would be for his good, and against what he believes would be to his detriment. This the philosopher shews must necessarily happen among us, since most men are blinded with ignorance, prejudice, or passion,

1 No. 201: omitted from this selection.

which hinder them from seeing such things as are really beneficial to them. For an instance, he asks Alcibiades, Whether he would not be thoroughly pleased and satisfied, if that god, to whom he was going to address himself, should promise to make him the sovereign of the whole earth? Alcibiades answers, That he should doubtless look upon such a promise as the greatest favour that could be bestowed upon him. Socrates then asks him, if, after receiving this great favour, he would be contented to lose his life; or if he would receive it though he Io was sure he should make an ill use of it? To both which questions Alcibiades answers in the negative. Socrates then shews him, from the examples of others, how these might very probably be the effects of such a blessing. He then adds, that other reputed pieces of good fortune, as that of having a son, or procuring the highest post in a government, are subject to the like fatal consequences; which nevertheless, says he, men ardently desire, and would not fail to pray for, if they thought their prayers might be effectual for the obtaining of them.

Having established this great point, that all the most apparent 20 blessings in this life are obnoxious to such dreadful consequences, and that no man knows what in its events would prove to him a blessing or a curse, he teaches Alcibiades after what manner he ought to pray.

In the first place he recommends to him, as the model of his devotions, a short prayer, which a Greek poet composed for the use of his friends, in the following words: 'O Jupiter, give us those things which are good for us, whether they are such things as we pray for, or such things as we do not pray for: and remove from us those things which are hurtful, though they are such 30 things as we pray for.'

In the second place, that his disciple may ask such things as are expedient for him, he shews him that it is absolutely necessary to apply himself to the study of true wisdom, and to the knowledge of that which is his chief good, and the most suitable to the excellency of his nature.

In the third and last place, he informs him that the best methods he could make use of to draw down blessings upon himself, and to render his prayers acceptable, would be to live in a constant practice of his duty, towards the gods and towards men. 40 Under this head he very much recommends a form of prayer the

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