-
Articles/Ads
Article ON PARENTAL PARTIALITIES. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Parental Partialities.
For my own part , Sir , I am the son of honourable and wealth y parents ; and though 1 have never suffered their discouraging neglect of me to relax my attention to my duty ; though they have never complained , or had reason to complain , of my behaviour ; I see myself marked out for the victim of their Partiality , arid , without having even incurred their displeasure , am doomed to be disinherited and abandoned ; turned adrift in a profession where success is more
uncertain than in any other , where it depends infinitely more on accident , than either industry or abilities : my profession , however , is likely to be all my portion ; and unless I can controul the uncertainties of chance , and command good fortune , I have nothing but penury and distress before me . My anxiety , however , is not wholly upon my own account . The
eldest of my two sisters , who is dearer to me perhaps for being a fellow-sufferer by the same misfortune , is a source of perpetual concern to me . My mother , who was entirel y entrusted with the education of her daughters , had her favourite , as well as my father . No expence or pains were spared in instructing the youngest , while the talents of her sister were disesteemedand thought unworthy the
, trouble of improvement . And so unjust was her opinion of their several merits , that the accomplishments of the one , which were hardly answerable to the sums-they had cost , were imputed solely to the force of genius , while the other was cruelly reproached with want of skill in those arts which she had never been suffered to learn ; and
her ignorance pronounced stupidity . My mother , however , before she died , had occasion to repent of the cruel distinction she had made between them , her favourite having disgraced her family by a match of her own contriving , and the eldest having been made completely unhappy by an improper match contrived and forced upon her by her parents . But to return to myselffor the miseries of my unfortunate sister
, are out of the reach of remedy or redress . There is a meanness in attempting to supplant a Brother , though he ingrosses that share of his Parent ' s love which is naturall y due to the rest , that no ingenuous disposition can submit to . This partiality , therefore , were it the only obstacle to my Welfare , would be insurmountable to me . But I have another prejudice to cope with , as deeply rooted , and not less
likely to prove fatal to my interest . There must be a head of the-family ; to establish the other son in a state of security and independence , would be diminishing HIS importance . The whole estate must roll down in a bulk to him ; and the very scraps and gleanings , that would be sufficient for the maintenance and happiness of a youngerbrother , must be swept together to increase it . Thus shall a man of
the strictest probity , scrupulously just in his dealings with all the world beside , commit a deliberate act of injustice against his own Son , and be instrumental in the ruin of his fortune . But surely it might be proved , if family importance is so much to be attended to , that a family must derive greater honour from the independence of every part , than from the over-grown dimensions of a single one ;
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Parental Partialities.
For my own part , Sir , I am the son of honourable and wealth y parents ; and though 1 have never suffered their discouraging neglect of me to relax my attention to my duty ; though they have never complained , or had reason to complain , of my behaviour ; I see myself marked out for the victim of their Partiality , arid , without having even incurred their displeasure , am doomed to be disinherited and abandoned ; turned adrift in a profession where success is more
uncertain than in any other , where it depends infinitely more on accident , than either industry or abilities : my profession , however , is likely to be all my portion ; and unless I can controul the uncertainties of chance , and command good fortune , I have nothing but penury and distress before me . My anxiety , however , is not wholly upon my own account . The
eldest of my two sisters , who is dearer to me perhaps for being a fellow-sufferer by the same misfortune , is a source of perpetual concern to me . My mother , who was entirel y entrusted with the education of her daughters , had her favourite , as well as my father . No expence or pains were spared in instructing the youngest , while the talents of her sister were disesteemedand thought unworthy the
, trouble of improvement . And so unjust was her opinion of their several merits , that the accomplishments of the one , which were hardly answerable to the sums-they had cost , were imputed solely to the force of genius , while the other was cruelly reproached with want of skill in those arts which she had never been suffered to learn ; and
her ignorance pronounced stupidity . My mother , however , before she died , had occasion to repent of the cruel distinction she had made between them , her favourite having disgraced her family by a match of her own contriving , and the eldest having been made completely unhappy by an improper match contrived and forced upon her by her parents . But to return to myselffor the miseries of my unfortunate sister
, are out of the reach of remedy or redress . There is a meanness in attempting to supplant a Brother , though he ingrosses that share of his Parent ' s love which is naturall y due to the rest , that no ingenuous disposition can submit to . This partiality , therefore , were it the only obstacle to my Welfare , would be insurmountable to me . But I have another prejudice to cope with , as deeply rooted , and not less
likely to prove fatal to my interest . There must be a head of the-family ; to establish the other son in a state of security and independence , would be diminishing HIS importance . The whole estate must roll down in a bulk to him ; and the very scraps and gleanings , that would be sufficient for the maintenance and happiness of a youngerbrother , must be swept together to increase it . Thus shall a man of
the strictest probity , scrupulously just in his dealings with all the world beside , commit a deliberate act of injustice against his own Son , and be instrumental in the ruin of his fortune . But surely it might be proved , if family importance is so much to be attended to , that a family must derive greater honour from the independence of every part , than from the over-grown dimensions of a single one ;