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ways be done, let every company, however, ⟨afford⟩ ſome exerciſe to your good affections, ⟨and⟩ furniſh you with some matter of useful reflection. "The induſtrious bee gathers honey from every opening flower."
In the advice which I have hitherto given you, I have chiefly conſidered you, my ſon, in your individual capacity, and ſuggeſted maxims and rules respecting your personal improvement and happiness. It remains that I add a few hints respecting the various important relations in which you ſtand at present, or may expect hereafter to be placed.
It is an eſtabliſhed law of nature, that men ſhould depend upon each other for ſubſiſtence and happiness. A human being in a ſtate perfectly ſolitary and insulated, would be deſtitute, forlorn, and wretched. Not only will you be neceſſarily dependent upon others for the accommodations of life, and therefore bound in equity to contribute in your turn to their comfortable exiſtence; but one very eſſential part of your perſonal enjoyment muſt arise from the exercise of the ſocial affections. The heart which has no object on which to exercise its benevolent feelings; no one whom it loves, and by whom it is beloved, is deſtitute of one of the firſt comforts of life, and muſt have a wretched conſciousness of vacuity. From the united ſense of obligation and of intereſt, learn to look beyond yourſelf, and to take
