Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774.Fithian, Philip Vickers
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Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774.
Fithian, Philip Vickers
Carter family; Virginia -- Social life and customs -- To 1775
3. To mention several Rules for your personal conduct. The happy
Education which you have had in point of religion, you ought to
consider as an important and distinguishing Blessing of Heaven. That
train of useful _Instruction_, _Advice_ & _Example_ to which you have
been accustomed from your infancy is a more perfect, & will be a safer
guide in your future walk, than any directions I am able to give you.
You have taken notice of a method for Assistance in Composition, which
Longinus recommends. Place, says he, in imagination, several eminent
ancient Authors before your Eyes, & suppose that they inspect your
Work, a Sense of inferiority would make you diligent, & your
composition accurate. Perhaps the same advice when transferr'd to
Morality, would be equally salutary. Unless it be objected that a
Belief of Gods presence at all times in every place is the strongest
possible restraint against committing Sin. This I constantly admit;
but when I consider how easily our minds are put in motion, & how
strongly they are sometimes agitated merely by the senses, & that the
senses are aff3ected most by things which fall under their immediate
notice, I am fully convinced that if some such plan as I have just
mentioned should be fallen upon, & practised, it would make a visible
and useful change in our behaviour--In this place I think it needful
to caution you against hasty & ill founded prejudices. When you enter
among a people, & find that their manner of living, their _Eating_,
_Drinking_, _Diversions_, _Exercise_ &c, are in many respects
different from any thing you have been accustomed to, you will be apt
to fix your opinion in an instant, & (as some divines deal with poor
Sinners) you will condemn all before you without any meaning or
distinction what seems in your Judgment disagreable at first view,
when you are smitten with the novelty. You will be making ten thousand
Comparisons. The face of the Country, The _Soil_, the _Buildings_, the
_Slaves_, the _Tobacco_, the method of spending _Sunday_ among
Christians; _Ditto_ among the Negroes; the three grand divisions of
time at the Church on Sundays, Viz. before Service giving & receiving
letters of business, reading Advertisements, consulting about the
price of Tobacco, Grain &c. & settling either the lineage, Age, or
qualities of favourite Horses 2. In the Church at Service, prayrs read
over in haste, a Sermon seldom under & never over twenty minutes, but
always made up of sound morality, or deep studied Metaphysicks. 3.
After Service is over three quarters of an hour spent in strolling
round the Church among the Crowd, in which time you will be invited by
several different Gentlemen home with them to dinner. The Balls, the
Fish-Feasts, the Dancing-Schools, the Christnings, the Cock fights,
the Horse-Races, the Chariots, the Ladies Masked, for it is a custom
among the Westmorland Ladies whenever they go from home, to muffle up
their heads, & Necks, leaving only a narrow passage for the Eyes, in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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