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lady herself , which is preserved as an almost infallible directory , It describes the law , order , and duty system , the fear , honour , reverence , and obey plan , in its most complete developement . Every thing is summed up in submission ; submission of heart , mind , and limb , in thought , vvord , will , and deed . ' Mrs . Wesley taught her children from their infancy duty to parents . She had
little difficulty in breaking their wills , ' ( Oh , Mr . Dove , these are your approving italics , ) * or reducing them to absolute submission . They were early brought by rational means under a mild yoke ;' ( don ' t mystify , Mr . Dove ;) ' they were perfectly obedient to their parents , and were taught to wait their decision in every thing they were to have , or to perform . * But let us hear Mrs . Wesley
herself . * When turned a year old { and some before * ) they were taught to fear the rod , and to cry softly ; they were never suffered to choose their meat ; there was no difficulty in making them take the most unpleasant medicine ., for they durst not refuse it ; they were taught to ask a blessing immediately after meals , which they used to do by signs , before they could kneel or speak . So much for practice ; the principle we shall state in a continued
quotation from Mrs . Wesley ' s letter : 4 In order to form the minds of children , the first thing to be done is to conquer their will . To inform the understanding is a work of time ; and must with children proceed by slow degrees , as they are able to bear it ; but the subjecting the will is a thing that must be done at once , and the sooner the better ; for by neglecting timely correction , they will contract a stubbornness and obstinacy which are hardly ever after conquered , and never without using such severity as would be as
painful to me * as to the child . In the esteem of the world , they paas for kind and indulgent , whom I call cruel parents ; who permit their children to get habits which they know must be afterwards broken . When the will of a child is subdued , and it is brought to revere and stand in awe of its parents , then a great many childish follies and Inadvertences may be passed by . Some should be overlooked , and others mildly reproved ; but no wilful transgression ought ever to be forgiven children , without chastisement , less or more , as the nature and
circumstances of the offence may require - I insist upon conquering the will of children betimes , because this is the only strong" ati < l rational foundation of a religious education , without which both precept and example will be ineffectual . But when thiB is thoroughly done , then a child is capable of being governed by the reason and piety of its parents , till its own understanding comes to maturity , and the principles of religion have taken root in the mind .
* I cannot yet dismiss this subject . As telf-will is the root of ajl sin and misery , so whatever cherishes this in children ensure * their wretchedness and irreligiou ; whatever checks and mortifies it , pro ** motes their future happiness and p iety . This is still more evident , if we farther consider that religion is nothing i'lse than doing the wiU of God % and not our own ; that the one grand impediment to our temporal and eternal happiness being this self-will , no indulgence of ft can be trivial , ho denial unprofitable . Heaven or fieit depends on
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A Victim . 16 ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1833, page 167, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2610/page/23/
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