The first Duties of Children are in great measure mechanical: an obedient Child makes a Bow, comes and goes, speaks, or is silent, just as he is bid, before he knows any other Reason for so doing than that he is bid: the Dawn of Reason shews him general Duties; that is, that he owes to his Parents and Guides Obedience, Respect, and Love: when his Mind is farther opened, and his Judgment has gained Strength, he sees (if led by faithful Teachers) that he is born for an important, nobly important Purpose; and tho’ many particular Obligations, which he was before a Stranger to, present themselves to his View, yet is he convinced that they are nothing but what, under Reason’s Sway, he is capable of answering. Farther, he sees that the Exercise of all moral Obligations are rendered light by being reciprocal; and from a Sense that his own Support, Comfort, and Happiness requires the Aid of others, he chearfully and willingly labours for others. Lastly, he sees, that tho’ irregular Passions sometimes raise Tumults in the Soul, and struggle for the Mastery, yet from the Happiness of a well-tempered Heart, the constant Exercise of Reason, and the Reflection he must needs make on the daily Instances before him of Vice punished and of Virtue rewarded, he may not only be enabled to give Virtue the Ascendant, but to give it on the purest Motive; that is, for the Love of Virtue. All this, I say, unless Children are by Nature untractable, or are over-powered by the Torrent of corrupt Example, will generally be the Effect of well-regulated Manners: and, possessed of all this, who can doubt but that they will then be wise? or who can think that while thus much is wanting they ever can be wise?