“EPWORTH, _November 8, 1706_. “DEAR CHILD,—After piety to God and to your parents, your morals will fall next under consideration; or, your duty towards yourself and your neighbour. “I hope I need not say much of justice toward your neighbour. Its general rules are short and easy. ‘Doing as you would be done by, and loving your neighbour as yourself;’ principles which have been admired by wise and virtuous heathens when they have heard them from the gospel; and which are, indeed, inscribed on the hearts of all mankind as a part of the law—natural, though much obliterated by the lapse of our nature and vicious habits. “As for the regiment of your passions, all the rest depend, in a great measure, on these two—love and hatred, or rather anger. “As for love, I shall only say at present that whoever expects to become anything in the world must guard against anti-Platonic love in his youth, shut his eyes and heart against it, burn romances, have a care of plays, and keep himself fully employed in some honest exercise; and then, I think, he will be in no very great danger from it. “But love takes in all desirable objects, or such as we fancy desirable; and here the rule is, first, that it be fixed upon a lawful object; and then, that it exceed not the due measure; since, if we offend against the former part of this rule, it unavoidably renders us criminal; if against the latter, at least ridiculous, imprudent, and unhappy. Indeed, there is but one object of our love where we cannot transgress in loving too much; and that is God. Even mediocrity is here a fault, which is both our wisdom and our virtue in all other cases. “As for hatred, I can scarce tell how it is possible to have it in extremes against any one. For my own part, I have much ado to hate the devil himself. I am sure I have often pitied him; and I interpret those scriptures which speak of hating the wicked, &c., as relating chiefly to their vices, for which we ought always to have a just abhorrence. “Anger, and some sort of aversion, I own to be more difficult to subdue, though even these have too often pride or interest at the bottom. There never was a truly great man who could not bridle his passions. This, my boy, is what I wish you would do, what I am sure you may do, and what would render you wiser and greater than most part of mankind. This mastery of yourself will cost you some pains before you can attain it; but it is richly worth all your labour, since this wise and Christian temper will be so far from inviting injuries, that you will have much fewer offered you in the course of your life; and if any should be so devilish as to do it, for that very reason, you will find they will glide very gently off, and leave little or no impression behind them. “And thus much of the government of your passions.—Your affectionate father,