LETTER VIII.

SELFISHNESS.

Selfishness acknowledged to be odious.-How excited in the infant mind.-Consequences of pampering the appetite for dainties. Of giving Children the power of controlling their desires.-Examples.

IF we wish to describe a character completely odious, we have only to say that the selfish passions have possession of his heart; and that he is a stranger to every generous and benevolent affection.

We are all willing to make allowance for some evidences of self-love; but with feelings that are purely selfish, no human being can sympathize. Where selfish motives are suspected, the bare suspicion of their existence excites disgust; where they are openly avowed, they excite not only dis

gust, but indignation; and as the esteem and sympathy of our fellow-creatures is necessary to our happiness, Providence has thus, in the very principles of our nature, placed a check on the selfishness which we are conscious would render us detestable.

But though we acknowledge selfishness to be odious, we, nevertheless, are at infinite pains to cherish in the infant mind the germ of those selfish passions which excite our abhorrence. We despise the man who has no control over his sensual appetites, and esteem the person' who evinces by his conduct, that the selfish and sensual passions have no dominion over him; and yet, we generally act towards children, in the first years of infancy, as if to gratify the sensual appetites, and to indulge the selfish passions, were the sole end of their existence!

We seem to consider the pampering of the appetite, as the surest mark of affection, and endeavour to stimulate it, by all the means in our power; and by this mis

taken conduct permanently associate the idea of supreme pleasure with sensual gratification. Hence proceeds the early licentiousness of youth, the uncontrollableness of desire, and that degrading habit of self-indulging indolence, which is inimical to the cultivation of every social, and every patriotic virtue. It is observed that, in the history of mankind, every age is distinguished by some characteristic feature, some peculiar vice or virtue, which becomes so universally prevalent as to characterise the general mass. Let us ask whether luxury and selfishness will not, by the future historian, be, with too much truth, attributed to the present times? It is for the mothers, to whom I now address myself, to arrest the destructive progress of the vices which have never failed to accelerate the fall of nations, and by enabling their sons to rise superior to the temptations which assail them, to give a new stamp to the character of the age in which they live.

As to her own child, at least, every mother may succeed in teaching him to restrain the selfish passions, provided she can lay the necessary restraint upon her own inclinations, when they prompt to the exercise of unlimited indulgence.

From the divine teacher, whose lessons evince the most perfect knowledge of the human heart, we learn, that a complete mastery over the selfish passions, is only to be obtained by the practice of self-denial. Self-denial is represented in Scripture to be essentially requisite towards the due performance of all our various duties; and is particularly necessary towards the performance of the social duties for never can we obey the golden rule of doing as we would be done by, until we have learned to restrain the passions and desires which terminate in self. Without having been early accustomed to control these passions, we will find it difficult to be always just, and impossible ever to be geneDo you wish your children to have

rous.

a nice sense of justice, and to be alive to the impulses of benevolence? Teach them to deny themselves. Begin by times to make them restrain the impetuosity of self-will, and to control the ardour of inclination. When there are several children in a family, a degree of emulation, with regard to the practice of self-denial, may be very advantageously excited. But beware of introducing vanity as an accompaniment.

I have seen children praised for little acts of self-denial, until the heart swelled with vanity, and thus the selfish passions, instead of being restrained, were only hurried into another channel. In place of counteracting one selfish passion, by another equally selfish, we ought to convince our children, that they rise in our esteem by showing themselves capable of exercising a command over the inclinations which they are most strongly impelled to gratify. The child who can relinquish the indulgence of 2 present inclination, in the hope of a future enjoyment, has made one step in the