Page:Father's memoirs of his child.djvu/116

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52

always observed to derive a more than ordinary pleasure from the society of his friends, when any little circumstance had occurred, occasioning them to give him any serious advice.

After the preceding remarks, it will scarcely be necessary to say, that his disposition was truly affectionate. Even here too, in the very overflowing of his nature, he shewed his mind to be well constituted, and his feelings under proper regulation. His natural notions were not yet stretched on the rack of pure, unadulterated justice: neither would he have broken the magic of the selfish and family pronoun "My," by saving the life even of Fenelon, in preference to that of his own father[1]. His love branched out, according to the design with which it was implanted, from his parents to his next kindred and connections, and thence in succession to more distant friends. Of this also some instances will now be adduced.

  1. See Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Book 2, Chap. 2