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less trained by habitual dependence to defer to the advice and direction of their parents. I am here speaking of influence properly so called, and not of authority, namely, the influence arising from benefits received, continued, and expected.
Suppose this influence established. Another consequence may be observed which will follow collaterally from the same cause. The same dependence which generates the influence, is also calculated to increase the watchfulness and anxiety of parents. In proportion to the dependence of children, is the degree in which the thoughts of their parents are necessarily engaged in their behalf, and again in proportion to this degree is the force of habit, and of other causes which tend to continue the thoughts and feelings in the same channel. On this ground I think, that, were a friend or relation to relieve a parent of the burden of maintaining his child from the age of seven to that of one and twenty, the probable consequence would be, that the parent would not afterwards feel the same interest in that child as he would otherwise have felt.
If this conclusion be just, it must be equally so
