APPLICATION.
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.
