By dear mamma’s o’er-weening fondness spoil’d,
Caress’d and pamper’d, dies the fav’rite child:
The boy she slights, rough, vig’rous, and well-grown,
Unaided, bears the brunt, and shifts alone.
The indulgence which parents shew to their children arises from the
most amiable of human weaknesses; but it is not the less injurious in
its effects, and therefore it is of great importance to guard against
it, and not to suffer a blind fondness to transport us beyond the
bounds of a discreet affection, for this often proves the ruin of the
child. This fable is also intended to expose the folly of a system of
favouritism in families, for experience shews that those children who
are the least pampered and indulged usually make the best and cleverest
men.
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