The guide to service Author:Guide Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. III. MATERNAL CHARACTERS. The Careys are a large family; mothers of this character are to be met with in every circle; and with but little variety of... more » feature. The main object of the world is to avoid trouble: but inasmuch as man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward, the only practicable way of escaping our share, is to delegate as much as we can of our duties to others, and care as little as possible how they are discharged. The practice obtains in every class of life. The minister of state throws the drudgery of office on his secretary; the beneficed priest confides his flock to his' curate; the country magistrate relies on his clerk to find precedents and authorities; even the tradesman lea/es the counter to his shop-boy; and all is done, not on the professed principle, that economy is found in the distribution of labour, but to avoid trouble; it is a secret worth knowing to all claimants on official justice; if they would gain their end, they must give ,xs much trouble as possible, only tempering their dunning with sufficient respect, to allow no decent excuse for being bowed out of attendance. And such is the case with fashionable mothers: they are fond of their children; they even take a pride in their excelling; conscience too, as well as instinctive affection, hourly suggests that it is a duty to instruct them. But then it is very inconvenient; it interferes with daily calls, and with what they are pleased to term, " daily duties that cannot be avoided." They are sensible of their own deficient education ; that they have forgotten three-fourths ofthe little they ever knew: and this consciousness is a sufficient salvo for the delegation of, not a part, but all their maternal rare. They inquire for a governess: they are told that she is "very steady"— "...« less