The Family Instructor, Vol. II (1718) PDF
Preview The Family Instructor, Vol. II (1718)
RELIGIOUS AND DIDACTIC WRITINGS OF DANIEL DEFOE General Editors: W. R. Owens and P. N. Furbank Volume 2: THE FAMILY INSTRUCTOR, VOLUME II (1718) Edited by P. N. Furbank LONDON PICKERING & CHATTO 2006 Published by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited 21 Bloomsbury Way, London, WCIA 2TH Old Post Road, Brookfield, Vermont 05036, USA www.pickeringchatto.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. Copyright © Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited 2006 BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA Defoe, Daniel, 1661?–1731 Religious and didactic writings of Daniel Defoe Vols. 1–5. – (The works of Daniel Defoe) (The Pickering masters) 1. Family – Early works to 1800 2. Family – Religious life – Early works to 1800 3. Didactic literature, English – History and criticism 4. Religious literature, English – History and crit- icism 5. England – Social life and customs – 18th century I. Title II. Owens, W. R. III. Furbank, Philip Nicholas 828.5'08 ISBN-10: 1851967389 8 This publication is printed on acid-free paper that conforms to the American National Standard for the Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Typeset by P&C Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge CONTENTS The Family Instructor, Vol. II (1718) 1 Explanatory notes 277 Textual notes 283 THE Family Instructor. I T P . N WO ARTS I. Relating to Family Breaches, and their obstructing Religious Duties. II. To the great Mistake of mixing the Passions, in the Managing and Correcting of Children. WITH A great Variety of Cases relating to setting Ill Examples to Chil- dren and Servants. VOL. II. LONDON: Printed for EMAN. MATTHEWS, at the Bible in Pater-Noster-Row. M DCC XVIII. P R E FA C E I AM not ignorant, that as Times and the Humour of People go, it is a bold Adventure to write a Second Volume of any thing; nor is the Success of a First Part any Rule to expect Success to a Second. On the Contrary, it is rather a Rule to obstruct it. The modern Readers of Books having a general Opinion which they entertain, like a fundamental Principle in Reading, That Second Parts never come up to the Spirit of the First; tho’ perhaps here they may find an Exception to that Rule. This was the Fate of that excellent Poem of Mr. Milton’s call’d, Paradise Regain’d; which, whether by the Error of common Fame, or the real Value of the Thing, could never obtain to be nam’d with the First. 1 Mr. Milton himself differ’d from the whole World in his Opinion about it, affirm’d that it was by much the better Poem, and gave this Reason for the general Dislike, (viz.) That People had a common Sense of the Loss of Paradise, but had not an equal Gust for the Regaining of it; but his Judgment, however good, could not prevail. I shall say but little of the Reason why People may like or dislike the present Work. The first Part of it gives the Story of Two very bad Wives; it would be scan- dalously foolish and unjust, to take Exceptions at my representing the Women so bad, as if I was partial against the Sex; but because some may be weak enough to do so, for want of understanding the Connexion of the Story, such are desir’d to observe the clear Reason of it, as follows. The Reproof is upon Husbands for omitting Family Worship, and pretending the Fault is in their Wives; it was absolutely necessary then to represent Two Wives inimitably bad, eminent for their Opposition to every thing that was good in their Husbands, and in a Word, extravagantly wicked, to shew that even in these extraordinary Cases, the Husband ought not to omit his Duty, and to infer, that if not in these Cases, certainly not in Cases less difficult, and consequently in no Case at all. This is the true and only Reason of bringing Two such bad Wives upon the Stage, as is also observ’d at large by Way of Note, upon that Part afterward, to which I refer. If Novelty had only recommended the First Part, then indeed we might suggest, that the Thoughts of People being once entertain’d, could no more be pleas’d again 3 Defoe: Religious and Didactic Writings, Volume 2 with the same Scheme: But this can no way affect us here; for if Novelty, the mod- ern Vice of the reading Palate, is to judge of our Performance, the whole Scene now presented, is so perfectly new, so entirely differing from all that went before, and so eminently directed to another Species of Readers, that it seems to be more new than it would have been, if no other Part had been publish’d before it; nay, to any consid- ering People that reflect upon the differing Scenes of Human Life, and the several Stations we are plac’d in, and Parts we act, while we are passing over this Stage, it cannot but be known, that there are Follies to be exposed, Dangers to be caution’d against, and Advices to be given, particularly adapted to the several Stages of Life. Upon this Account, instead of suggesting that a Second Volume of this Work should be less necessary than the First, I cannot but think they would either of them 2 be imperfect without the other; and if the Turkish Spy, and such other Books, from the known Variety of them, have pleased and diverted the World, even to the Seventh or Eight Volume: If this Subject is less pleasing, and fails of running the same Length with those looser Works, it must be because People have less Pleasure in Things that are instructing, than in Things merely humouring and diverting; less Patience in bearing a just Reproof, and less Humility in applying it to themselves than they ought to have. Doubtless there are Duties in our relative Stations of every Sort, one to another, Duties from Parents to Children, and from Masters to Servants, as well as from Children to Parents, and from Servants to Masters; and it must be own’d by all that look narrowly into these Things, that as on the one hand there are great Mistakes committed in the Government of themselves and their Families, by Parents and Mas- ters, so there is perhaps less said upon these necessary Heads in publick than upon any other; even the best Writers upon the Relative Duties, have seemed to be wholly silent upon this Subject: whether they did not see into the Want of it, or thought it was a Point so nice, that their Readers could not bear, or what other Thing has been the Hindrance, I know not. Correction! the most necessary Part of Family-Government, and the best Part of Education, how difficult a Thing is it! How little understood! How generally wrong apply’d! Omitted in necessary, and administred in unnecessary Cases! The Nature, Reason, and End of it mistaken! the Measure of it taken not from the Circumstances of the Childrens Offences, but from our own Tempers at that Time! How is it mingled with our Passions, and smother’d by our Affections, and in either Case the Use of it entirely destroy’d! and what Advantage, to get above Correction, do Children make of the Mistakes of their Parents in correcting them. Mistaken Parents may here be set to rights in some of the most dangerous Parts of that difficult Duty of correcting their Children: Here will be shewn how inconsistent it is with the great and weighty Office of a Parent to conceal the Passions in their Rebukes, or to let their want of Temper add to the Weight of their Hands: Here they 3 will be instructed in what Frame they ought to be when they Correct, and from 4 The Family Instructor, Vol. II what Principle their Hands must be lifted up to strike their own Flesh and Blood: How they are to exhort, instruct, expostulate, perswade, with the utmost Testimonies of Affection, all the while they are correcting: How inconsistent with correcting a Child, the Noise, the Rage, the Fury of our Passions are; and how often the true Par- ent corrects with more Tears in his own Eyes, than he brings out of the Eyes of the Child he chastises; and yet here he will see that this Tenderness must not be permit- ted, to prevent or withhold that wholsom Correction, which Duty to the Child calls for, and which, if it be with-held, destroys the Force of every other Part of his Education. I shall say nothing more of what is here published, but this: The same Desire of doing Good, which mov’d the First Part, has been sincerely and principally the Occa- sion of writing this Part. With all possible Humility and Thankfulness, I 4 acknowledge and believe I have had the same Presence and Assistance; and I cannot but hope for the same Blessing and Success; and with the Comfort and Confidence of this, I chearfully send it into the World, not concern’d at all at the Opposition it shall meet with from the Infirmities and Unworthiness of its Author. 5
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