第34章 FATHERLY CARE.(2)

But it is generally so far otherwise,that the common race of 'squires in this kingdom use their sons as persons that are waiting only for their funerals,and spies upon their health and happiness;as indeed they are,by their own making them such.In cases where a man takes the liberty after this manner to reprehend others,it is commonly said,Let him look at home.I am sorry to own it;but there is one branch of the house of the Bickerstaffs who have been as erroneous in their conduct this way as any other family whatsoever.The head of this branch is now in town,and has brought up with him his son and daughter,who are all the children he has,in order to be put some way into the world,and see fashions.They are both very ill-bred cubs;and having lived together from their infancy,without knowledge of the distinctions and decencies that are proper to be paid to each other's sex,they squabble like two brothers.The father is one of those who knows no better than that all pleasure is debauchery,and imagines,when he sees a man become his estate,that he will certainly spend it.This branch are a people who never had among them one man eminent either for good or ill:however,have all along kept their heads just above water,not by a prudent and regular economy,but by expedients in the matches they have made in to their house.When one of the family has in the pursuit of foxes,and in the entertainment of clowns,run out the third part of the value of his estate,such a spendthrift has dressed up his eldest son,and married what they call a good fortune:who has supported the father as a tyrant over them during his life,in the same house or neighbourhood.The son,in succession,has just taken the same method to keep up his dignity,till the mortgages he has ate and drank himself into have reduced him to the necessity of sacrificing his son also,in imitation of his progenitor.This had been for many generations,the whole that had happened in the family of Sam Bickerstaff,till the time of my present cousin Samuel,the father of the young people we have just now spoken of.

Samuel Bickerstaff,esquire,is so happy as that by several legacies from distant relations,deaths of maiden sisters,and other instances of good fortune,he has besides his real estate,a great sum of ready money.His son at the same time knows he has a good fortune,which the father cannot alienate;though he strives to make him believe he depends only on his will for maintenance.Tom is now in his nineteenth year.Mrs.Mary in her fifteenth.Cousin Samuel,who understands no one point of good behaviour as it regards all the rest of the world,is an exact critic in the dress,the motion,the looks,and gestures,of his children.What adds to their misery is,that he is excessively fond of them,and the greatest part of their time is spent in the presence of this nice observer.Their life is one of continued constraint.The girl never turns her head,but she is warned not to follow the proud minxes of the town.The boy is not to turn fop,or be quarrelsome,at the same time not to take an affront.I had the good fortune to dine with him to-day,and heard his fatherly table-talk as we sat at dinner,which,if my memory does not fail me,for the benefit of the world,I shall set down as he spoke it;which was much as follows,and may be of great use to those parents who seem to make it a rule,that their children's turn to enjoy the world is not to commence till they themselves have left it.

"Now,Tom,I have bought you chambers in the inns of court.I allow you to take a walk once or twice a day round the garden.If you mind your business,you need not study to be as great a lawyer as Coke upon Littleton.I have that that will keep you;but be sure you keep an exact account of your linen.Write down what you give out to your laundress,and what she brings home again.Go as little as possible to the other end of the town;but if you do,come home early.I believe I was as sharp as you for your years,and I had my hat snatched off my head coming home late at a stop by St.Clement's church,and I do not know from that day to this who took it.I do not care if you learn to fence a little;for I would not have you made a fool of.Let me have an account of everything,every post;Iam willing to be at that charge,and I think you need not spare your pains.As for you,daughter Molly,do not mind one word that is said to you in London,for it is only for your money."