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ETHICS FOR CHILDREN;

DIVIDED INTO

DAILY PORTIONS:

AS INTRODUCTORY TO

ETHICS FOR YOUTH.

BY

A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

"The culture and manurance of minds in youth hath such a forcible,
though unseen operation, as hardly any length of time or contention of
labour can countervail it afterwards."-LORD BACON.

"Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and
whether it be right."-Pro. xx. 11.

LONDON:

WILLIAM PICKERING, CHANCERY LANE.

1829

26520. f. 41.

"The earliest principles are generally the most lasting; and those of a religious cast are seldom wholly lost."-GIL

PIN.

"It is of admirable use toward all the practices of religion and virtue, to have the minds of children well stored with good principles."-DR. WATTS.

"All children should have some sound instruction in the conduct of human life: some necessary and suitable rules of prudence, by which they may justly regulate their own affairs, and their behaviour towards their fellow-creatures."-DR. DODDRIDGE.

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"Suffer the little children to come unto ME, and forbid them not :"

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THE GREAT GOD AND OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.'
Mark, x. 14; Titus, ii. 13.

Eve

Thomas White, Printer,
Johnson's Court.

PREFACE.

"ETHICS is a doctrine of wisdom and knowledge to live well, and of the madness and foolishness of vice: or instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment and equity, and to do good in our life. The end whereof is to see and attain that chief good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life."* "*-BP. HALL.

"Let all parents, while they are so anxious to embellish the manners, and improve the understandings of their children, pay more attention than they have done to the cultivation of their hearts. From their infancy to their manhood, let them be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Let those grand corrupters of their unguarded innocence and simplicity, licentious novels, histories, and systems of philosophy, be for ever banished from the hands of our youth, and in their room let revealed religion make a fundamental part of their education. Let them not be left to pick it up themselves, as well as they can, from casual information, or a few superficial, unconnected instructions; but let it be taught them systematically and methodically; let the first rudiments of it be instilled as early and as carefully into their minds as those of every other science; let its evidences and its doctrines be gradually explained to them, in the several seminaries of learning through which they successively pass, in proportion

Eccles. i. 17; vii. 25; Pro. i. 3; Eccles. iii. 12: ii, 3.

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as their judgments ripen, and their understandings unfold themselves. Let them, in short, be made not only great scholars and accomplished gentlemen; but, what is of infinitely more importance, both to themselves and to the public, honest men and sincere christians."-BP. PORTEUS.

"We ought to impress devotional feelings as early as possible on the infant mind; they cannot be impressed too soon: a child, to feel the full force of the idea of a God, ought never to remember the time when he had no such idea: we should impress them by connecting religion with a variety of sensible objects; with all that he seès, all he hears, all that effects his young mind with wonder or delight."-MRS. BAR

BAULD.

"We may shew a boy the variegated colours of the rainbow, and the silent progress of vegetation in the trees of the forest and flowers of the field, we may bid him lift up his eyes to the sun in its meridian glory, and to the stars which sparkle in the high and spacious firmament. From these animating prospects we may easily lead him to the knowledge of that power and wisdom by which the universe is formed and preserved. That God is the moral governour and judge of the world, he will soon learn to conceive, if we shew him, not by circuitous and elaborate arguments, but by visible and practical inferences, the tendency of virtue to happiness, and of vice to misery. From other men his thoughts will quickly turn toward himself, and he will feel an anxiety to avoid the displeasure, and to conciliate the favour of that Gracious Being, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The death of parents, to whom he has looked up with fond affection, or of comrades, with whom he has sported with harmless amusement, may furnish opportunities for many instructions on the

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shortness and uncertainty of this life, and on the necessity of preparation for a better state.

Let us encourage children to thank Heaven for blessings which they have themselves experienced, and which they know how to value-for the food they eat-for the raiment which they wear-for the protection of their parents, and the counsels of their teachers. To the goodness of God let them be encouraged to look up for every advantage they now enjoy, and upon His providence let them be accustomed to depend for every comfort which they hereafter expect."DR. PARR.

"I think I may say, that of all men we meet with, nine parts of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or not, by their education. 'Tis that which makes the difference in mankind. The little, or almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies, have very important and lasting consequences: and there 'tis, as in the fountains of some rivers, where a gentle application of the hand turns the flexible waters into channels, that make them take quite contrary courses; and by this little direction given them at first in the source, they receive different tendencies, and arrive at last, at very remote and distant places."-LOCKE.

In many of his selections, the compiler has endeavoured to make the succeeding days bear on the subject of the preceding Sunday; and to correspond to the periods of the year.

At a very early age, he hopes the young will get by heart the sentences at the heads of the

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