whether from distance or other cause, all pass the afternoon together.  This used to be the way of life amongst the labouring people; and from this way of life arose the most able and most moral people that the world ever saw, until grinding taxation took from them the means of obtaining a sufficiency of food and of raiment; plunged the whole, good and bad, into one indiscriminate mass, under the degrading and hateful name of paupers.

253.  The working man, in whatever line, and whether in town or country, who spends his day of rest, or any part of it, except in case of absolute necessity, away from his wife and children, is not worthy of the name of father, and is seldom worthy of the trust of any employer.  Such absence argues a want of fatherly and of conjugal affection, which want is generally duly repaid by a similar want in the neglected parties; and, though stern authority may command and enforce obedience for a while, the time soon comes when it will be set at defiance; and when such a father, having no example, no proofs of love, to plead, complains of filial ingratitude, the silent indifference of his neighbours, and which is more poignant, his own heart, will tell him that his complaint is unjust.

254.  Thus far with regard to working people; but much more necessary is it to inculcate these principles in the minds of young men in the middle rank of life, and to be more particular, in their case, with regard to the care due to very young children, for here servants come in; and many are but too prone to think, that when they have handed their children over to well-paid and able servants, they have done their duty by them, than which there can hardly be a more mischievous error.  The children of the poorer people are, in general, much fonder of their parents than those of the rich are of theirs:  this fondness is reciprocal; and the cause is, that the children of the former have, from their very birth, had a greater share than those of the latter—­of the personal attention, and of the never-ceasing endearments of their parents.

255.  I have before urged upon young married men, in the middle walks of life, to keep the servants out of the house as long as possible; and when they must come at last, when they must be had even to assist in taking care of children, let them be assistants in the most strict sense of the word; let them not be confided in; let children never be left to them alone; and the younger the child, the more necessary a rigid adherence to this rule.  I shall be told, perhaps, by some careless father, or some play-haunting mother, that female servants are women, and have the tender feelings of women.  Very true; and, in general, as good and kind in their nature as the mother herself.  But they are not the mothers of your children, and it is not in nature that they should have the care and anxiety adequate to the necessity of the case.