every Day vending Things, which they know not the Nature nor Use of; and so far impose on the weak and credulous, as often to make a Fortune at others Cost. Opium, Mercury, and all the powerful Drugs, are every Day scattered about the Kingdom, and indiscriminately offered to all, whether they want them or not, whether they are good for them or not; and the specious Terms they are recommended in are apt to mislead, not merely innocent, but very sensible People. Since then Things are so, Parents must be very wary how they touch such dangerous Weapons. ’Tis great Odds but they mistake their Child’s Disorder; ’tis great Odds that the random Medicine they give is not suited to it; and how will they reconcile it to themselves if any fatal Consequence ensues? Upon the Whole, as a Friend to Mankind, independent of any private Interest, as one who aims at the Benefit of Society, and wishes to preserve the rising Generation, I cannot but advise Parents to be tender, circumspect, and judicious, in so important a Matter as their Children’s Health. When they are well, let them use every prudent Means to keep them so; if they are ill, let them ask good Advice; by which Means they will often save their Children’s Lives: and even where a Miscarriage happens, their Prudence and Justice will be attended with this Consolation, that they have done their best. MANNERS. Manners comes next under my Consideration: it implies such a Government of our Children as tends to regulate their Conduct, by making their Actions what they ought to be. And though Health has been treated first, from it’s being generally thought the most immediately necessary, yet if this Regulation, this due Government does not accompany every Endeavour to preserve their Children’s Health, Parents will often be disappointed, and find their Labour fruitless.