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The Chapter on

"THE DUTIES OF SERVANTS,"

Is Published separately, price 3d.

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CHAPTER I.

THE DOMESTIC CONSTITUTION, AND THE MUTUAL DUTIES OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES.

"By Thee

Founded in reason, loyal, just and pure,
Relations dear, and all the charities

Of Father, Son, and Brother, first were known.
Far be it that I should write thee, sin or blame,
Or think thee unbefitting holiest place,

Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets!"

MILTON.

A FAMILY! How delightful the associations we form with such a word! How pleasing the images with which it crowds the mind, and how tender the emotions which it awakens in the heart! Who can wonder that domestic happiness should be a theme dear to poetry, and that it should have called forth some of the sweetest strains of fancy and of feeling? Or who can be surprised, that of all the sweets which present themselves in the vista of futurity, to the eye of those who are setting out on the journey of life, this should excite the most ardent desires, and engage the most active pursuits? But alas! of those who in the ardour of youth, start for the possession of this dear prize, how many fail! And why? Because

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in the worship of God; while at the same time, he discharges the duties of a king, by supporting a system of order, subordination and discipline. Conformably with its nature, is its design: beyond the benefit of the individuals which compose it, and which is its first and immediate object, it is intended to promote the welfare of the national community to which it belongs, and of which it is a part: hence every nation has stamped a great value on the family compact, and guarded it with the most powerful sanctions. Well instructed, well ordered, and well governed families, are the springs, which, from their retirements, send forth the tributary streams that make up by their confluence, the majestic flow of national greatness and prosperity: nor can any state be prosperous, where family order and subordination are generally neglected; nor otherwise than prosperous, whatever be its political form, where these are generally maintained. It is certainly under the wise instruction, and the impartial sceptre of a father, and within the little family circle, that the son becomes a good citizen; it is by the fire side and upon the family hearth, that loyalty and patriotism and every public virtue grows; as it is in disordered families, that factious demagogues, and turbulent rebels, and tyrannical oppressors, are trained up to be their neighbour's torment, or their country's scourge. It is there that the thorn and the briar, to use the elegant simile of the prophet, or the myrtle and the fir tree are reared, which are in future time, to be the ornament and defence, or the deformity and misery of the land.

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