: Solomon's powerful genius arrested and perpetuated them and such is his commanding eloquence, that they scarcely seem to lose any thing, by being clothed in language; his expressions are the types of his affections; his appeal rises warm from his heart. "Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake you not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live." This is not egotism: it is the expression of powerful feeling, and manifests the heart to be more deeply interested for others than for himself. A man may speak of himself, when it is to benefit others; to give greater weight to his counsels; to take deeper root in the affections; and to obtain a firmer hold upon them, for their instruction and advantage, without being an egotist. Egotism is a compound of selfishness and vanity; in the above text, there is not a particle of either. It is full of paternal emotion: and, while the father speaks of himself, he is thinking of his children; he speaks of himself only to interest them more effectually, and give force to his instructions; and never thinks of himself less, than while he is proposing to them his own example, and that of his parents; to whose memory a gush of filial tenderness breaks forth, and commingles with his paternal anxieties. There is, in this admonition, I know not what charm of recollection. The past comes again, clothed in the bright radiance of hope, such as it once appeared, before reality had extinguished its light, and broken its day-dream. Childhood returns with all its intensity of ardour, all its simplicity of character, all its buoyancy of spirits, all its fearless confidence, all its lively gaiety, all its thoughtless mirth, all its varied emotions, all its warm affections. The vivacity which beguiled the parent of many a smile, and drew forth also many a tear-which, in placing before him all he loved, shewed him at the same moment all he had to fear-returns upon the father: he remembers what he was as a child, and what his parents were to him; he remembers counsels little heeded at the time, and too much neglected afterwards; and, without forgetting that he is himself a parent, he places before his own children the wisdom of his father, and the result of his own experience. It is impossible for me to convey to others, in any adequate language, the emotions which this passage, so full of feeling and of gentleness, awakens in my bosom. It seems to me to speak, on the part of the writer, of departed joys, recalled by the occasion, but not to be retained: the flashings of youthful pleasures, and vivacity upon old age, like the fitful coruscations of the aurora borealis upon a northern sky at midnight-enchanting, but momentary; bright, but cold; playing over a scene of darkness with partial, sudden, transient illumination, to leave the shades deeper and more dreary than before. Such are the recollections of childhood and youth, with their train of hopes disappointed, promises blighted, advantages neglected, and knowledge spurned, until too dearly bought by experience. FILIAL DUTIES. Love, is the first and grand spring of filial duty. To suppose its absence, is to libel human nature. The claims of the mother are so gentle, and those of the father so reasonable, that both ought to be irresistible. I have stated the principle, because of its importance, in giving character to duty-not as requiring either explanation or defence. I send the young man home to his mother's painful anxieties on his account-to her watchings over him in sickness-her caresses of his infancy-her tears -her fidelity: I send him to his father's counselshis labours-his sacrifices-his manly tenderness: these are to act upon his heart; and if there be a son or a daughter, upon whose heart these considerations will not act, to produce correspondent love, I have the misfortune to have found one of those whom the apostle places upon the blackest catalogue of human crimes, and whom he describes "as without natural affection." Docility will be the product of this principle. The ingenuous child will defer to the opinion of his father-will reverence his wisdom, and cheerfully yield to his authority-will acknowledge that his matured understanding is fitter to guide his course, than his own twilight judgment; and will give that good and tender father credit, for intending in all his arrangements, his advantage, and this only. He will yield, not only without a struggle, but with joy, to the instructions of that mother, whose soul of love looks at him through her eyes, and whose voice trembles with emotions of tenderness, while she exhorts him-" What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?" Let my young female friends listenNever choose a man for your husband, who has been an undutiful son. You will have no hold upon him: believe me, he that has shewn no filial affections, has no heart at all—do not trust him with your peace. He may have a thousand personal graces, and a thousand acquired accomplishments, but this one defect annihilates the whole. And wo to that unhappy young man, who shall choose the partner of his life from amongst perverse daughters: he has taken to his bosom, a fire that will consume him. The best pledge of future relative excellences must be sought among the earliest indications of filial duty. A good son, and a good daughter, cannot make a bad wife, or a profligate husband. The claims of filial duty are absolute and indissoluble. The God who made you requires them at your hands. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour thy father and thy mother (which is the first commandment with promise,) that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth." It is remarkable that this is the only moral precept that has a distinct promise attached to it, and that of a temporal and immediate nature: and surely shews in what estimation in the sight of God is filial duty. On the other hand, how dreadful is his figurative denunciation-"The eye that mocketh his father, and despiseth to obey his mother; the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." How tremendous is his sentence "Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother." How justly severe his ancient law, which decreed "the stubborn and rebellious son to die by stoning under the hand of the men of the city where he dwelt," as a pest of society not to be endured. How full and ample are the instructions of filial duty, both in the Old and New Testaments! and how illustrious are those examples by which they are supported. The filial reverence of Isaac, was marked on an occasion of all others the most important-the choice of a wife. And this single instance of filial piety speaks volumes, both to parents and children. I will venture two remarks, upon which incalculable interests are suspended. It is absolutely essential to the duty of a child, not to form such a connexion without consulting the feelings, and being guided by the counsels, of the parent. And, oh! let me impress upon the hearts of parents the |