Partiality in a Parent is commonly Unlucky, if not a little Unnatural,
for Fondlings are in danger to be made Fools, by the very Error of their
Education, and we find it Experimentally that the Children that are least
Cocker’d, make the Best, and Wisest Men. ’Tis well to be Tender, but to
set the Heart too much upon any thing, is what we cannot Justify, either
in Religion, or in Reason. I was Saying that Partiality was a little
Unnatural too. I do not mean a Partiality of Inclination; for we cannot
Command our Likings, or our Aversions; but I speak of a Partiality that
shews it self in a Distinguishing Preference of One to the Other, and
therefore what Hankering Dispositions soever we may have, That Fondness
should not Transport us beyond the Bounds of a Discreet Affection; and
Other Circumstances apart, we should no more be kinder to One Child
then to Another, then we are Tender of One Eye more then of the Other;
for they are Both our Own Flesh and Blood alike. Children are Naturally
Jealous, and Envious, and the Quenching of their Spirits so Early,
hazards the Damping of them for ever. Beside, that there is no such Fop
in Fine, as my Young Master, that has the Honour to be a Fool of his Lady
Mother’s making. She Blows him up into a Conceit of Himself, and there he
Stops, without ever Advancing One Step further. In short, she makes a Man
of him at Sixteen, and a Boy all the Days of his Life after. And what is
All This now, but the True Moral of the _Ape_ with her _Brats_ here in
the Fable? The _Cub_ that she carry’d at her Back had the Wit to Shift
for it self; but the Other, that she _Hugg’d as the Devil did the Witch_,
Perish’d in her very Arms.