APRIL 30
You have not such another flower in all your gardens.*
Letter, 11th January, 1775
Be peculiarly careful to set before your children the copies and patterns of the virtues which you teach. And let them neither see nor hear anything from you which you would not desire to have copied by them. … We ought to reverence and stand in awe of children, that nothing may be spoke or done in their sight, which may taint their tender minds.
With regard to their spiritual good, your first labour of love is to present them to God in baptism. You are to inure them to good, to instruct and admonish them, to educate them in the knowledge and fear of God, to season their minds as early as possible with the fundamental truths of religion, and in such manner as is best suited to their capacity, to train them up in all holiness. Every instruction should be seconded by example.
The Duties of Husbands and Wives
* - a reference to Nancy Bolton
