Thus, some place their confidence in the father and some
in the mother, and by degrees the house is filled with artifices
and feuds.
"The opinions of children and parents, of the young and the old,
are naturally opposite, by the contrary effects of hope and
despondency, of expectation and experience, without crime or folly
on either side. The colours of life in youth and age appear
different, as the face of Nature in spring and winter. And how can
children credit the assertions of parents which their own eyes show
them to be false?
"Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce their maxims
by the credit of their lives. The old man trusts wholly to slow
contrivance and gradual progression; the youth expects to force his
way by genius, vigour, and precipitance. The old man pays regard
to riches, and the youth reverences virtue. The old man deifies
prudence; the youth commits himself to magnanimity and chance. The
young man, who intends no ill, believes that none is intended, and
therefore acts with openness and candour; but his father; having
suffered the injuries of fraud, is impelled to suspect and too
often allured to practise it.
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