XI.] CONCLUSION. 



amongst those others, the poor, do it for them ; like 

 the cuckoo, which lays its egg in the hedge- 

 sparrow's nest, and makes the poor little thing- 

 feed the intruder, until, as soon as of heak and 

 swallow sufficient, it devours the nurse herself. 



201. Sifch are my notions relative to the du- 

 ties of a man towards his family. He is to pro- 

 vide for them in an adequate, just, and suitable 

 manner ; but he is not to neglect his duties, not 

 at all less sacred, towards his neighbours and his 

 country, especially when it is considered, that his 

 family shares, too, in the benefit resulting from 

 the discharge of these duties. He is to provide 

 for his family if he be able; but, amongst the 

 causes of inability, he is to reckon the necessity 

 of preserving his character; the necessity of ex- 

 pending time or money, or both, in order to serve 

 his country, or to advance his own honest and 

 fair fame, or to avenge himself on his cruel or 

 unjust enemies ; for no " flesh and blood '' have 

 a claim upon him sufficiently strong to make it 

 his duty to abandon any one of these ; nor have 

 they a claim upon him so strong as to justify him 

 in withholding relief from the necessitous, or in at 

 all pinching the labourer in his hire ; or, in short, 

 to justify him in committing any act of covetous- 

 ness, or even of meanness. 



202. By these principles I have always been 

 actuated myself, and I have constantly endea- 



o 



