CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. lAQ 



The days on which my step- mother, or sisters-in-law, come 

 to see the children, are to me days of torment. Yesterday I 

 was exposed to a rude attack of the following nature : one of 

 my female cousins came to the house, in consequence of De- 

 MocRACiA, and her adherents, being there on a visit : my 

 youngest daughter, Clarissa, ran to embrace her, exclaim- 

 ing : ** wilt thou give me a sweetmeat, a little present !" I 

 could dissemble no longer, but, calling to me the little girl, 

 asked her somewhat sharply, whether she had forgotten the 

 mode of making a request which I had taught her ? I had 

 scarcely concluded when Democracia, darting at me a fierce 

 glance, and snatching the child from my arms, said to me in 

 a tone of maledi6lion : " it is well known that you do not love 

 your children, and that you are rather their tyrant than their 

 father. You who undertake to teach others good breeding, 

 ought first to know that it argues great audacity to seek to 

 corre6l a general custom ; and that, were this not even the 

 case, it is my will and pleasure." 



How much I was irritated by this mode of procedure may be 

 readily concluded ; but, not to disturb the tranquillity of the 

 neighbourhood, I forbore to speak in reply, and withdrew. 

 I unburthen myself to you, gentlemen, and entreat you to de- 

 mand, in my name, of all the mothers who think with De- 

 mocracia, what idea they entertain of filial respedt, and pa- 

 ternal superiority ? If the idiom of our language has confi- 

 dential and familiar expressions differing from those of reve- 

 rence, why should they be confounded ? Why should we 

 accustom children to hold the same language to their mother 

 as to the female slave who attends them, and not to distinguish 

 their father from the coachman ? And, lastly, why should a 



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