Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

The Family Instructor: In Three Parts

London

Printed for Eman. Matthews

1715

"The Child may be wrought upon; Nature like some Vegetables, is malleable when taken green and early; but hard and brittle when condens'd by Time and Age; at first it bows and bends to Instruction and Reproof, but afterwards obstinately refuses both."

WHat a great deal of Work have those People behind-hand, who do not begin to instruct and restrain their Children till they are too big for Correction! Folly that is bound up in the Heart of a Child, says Solomon, is driven thence by the Rod of Correction: But when it remains in the Child, and neither the Rod of Correction, or the Voice of Instruction is made use of to drive it out, till the Child grows up to be a Man, it is very hard, nay impossible, but by a supernatural Assistance, to drive it out at all. What this Folly is, needs no Description here, other than an allow'd Custom in doing Evil, a natural Propensity we all have to Evil; with this we are all born into the World, the Soul is originally bent to Folly; this Bent or Inclination must be rectified, or driven out either by Instruction, or if that proves insufficient, by Correction; and it is to be done while the Person is young, while he is a Child, and then IT MAY be done. The Child may be wrought upon; Nature like some Vegetables, is malleable when taken green and early; but hard and brittle when condens'd by Time and Age; at first it bows and bends to Instruction and Reproof, but afterwards obstinately refuses both.
(I, pp. 67-8)

Plant::Vegetables

ECCO-TCP

27 entries in ESTC (1715, 1717, 1718, 1720, 1725, 1727, 1732, 1734, 1741, 1742, 1755, 1761, 1766, 1787, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1800).

Text from The Family Instructor: In Three Parts; I. Relating to Fathers and Children. II. To Masters and Servants. III. To Husbands and Wives. (London: Printed for Eman. Matthews, 1715). <Link to Vol. I in ECCO-TCP>

03/12/2014