Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	child_n	parent_n	3,455	5	9.2562	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26092	A serious proposal to the ladies, for the advancement of their true and greatest interest by a lover of her sex.	Astell, Mary, 1668-1731.	1694 (1694)	Wing A4062; ESTC R9521	37,830	178

partial are Men as to expect Brick where they afford no straw and so abundantly civil as to take care we shou'd make good that obliging Epithet of Ignorant which out of an excess of good Manners they are pleas'd to bestow on us One wou'd be apt to think indeed that Parents shou'd take all possible care of their Childrens Education not only for their sakes but even for their own And tho the Son convey the Name to Posterity yet certainly a great Part of the Honour of their Families depends on their Daughters 'T is the kindness of Education that binds our duty fastest on us For the being instrumental to the bringing us into the world is no matter of choice and therefore the less obliging But to procure that we may live wisely and happily in it and be capable of endless Joys hereafter is a benefit we can never sufficiently acknowledge To introduce poor Children into the world and neglect to fence them against the temptations of it and so leave them expos'd to temporal and eternal Miseries is a wickedness for which I want a Name 't is beneath Brutality the Beasts are better natur'd for they take care of their off-spring till they are capable of caring for themselves And if Mothers had a due regard to their Posterity how Great soever they are they wou'd not think themselves too Good to perform what Nature requires nor thro' Pride and Delicacy remit the poor little one to the care of a Foster Parent Or if necessity inforce them to depute another to perform their Duty they wou'd be as choice at least in the Manners and Inclinations as they are in the complections of their Nurses least with their Milk they transfuse their Vices and form in the Child such evil habits as will not easily be eradicated Nature as bad as it is and as much as it is complain'd of is so far improveable by the grace of GOD upon our honest and hearty endeavours that if we are not wanting to our selves we may all in some tho not in an equal measure be instruments of his Glory Blessings to this world and capable of eternal Blessedness in that to come But if our Nature is spoil'd instead of being improv'd at first if from our Infancy we are nurs'd up in Ignorance and Vanity are taught to be Proud and Petulent Delicate and Fantastick Humorous and Inconstant 't is not strange that the ill effects of this Conduct appears in all the future Actions of our Lives And seeing it is Ignorance either habitual or actual which is the cause of all sin how are they like to escape this who are bred up in that That therefore women are unprofitable to most and a plague and dishonour to some men is not much to be regretted on account of the Men because 't is the product of their own folly in denying them the benefits of an ingenuous and liberal Educaion the most effectual means to direct them into and to secure their progress in the ways of Vertue For that Ignorance is the cause of most Feminine Vices may be instanc'd in that Pride and Vanity which is usually imputed to us and which I suppose if throughly sifted will appear to be some way or other the rise and Original of all the rest These tho very bad Weeds are the product of a good Soil they are nothing else but Generosity degenerated and corrupted A desire to advance and perfect its Being is planted by GOD in all Rational Natures to excite them hereby to every worthy and becoming Action for certainly next to the Grace of GOD nothing does so powerfully restrain people from Evil and stir them up to Good as a generous Temper And therefore to be ambitious of perfections is no fault tho to assume the Glory of our Excellencies to our selves or to Glory in such as we really have not are And were Womens haughtiness express'd in disdaining to do a mean and evil thing wou'd they pride themselves in somewhat truly perfective of a Rational Nature there were no hurt in it But then they ought not to be denied the means of examining and judging what is so they should not be impos'd on with tinsel ware If by reason of a false Light or undue Medium they chuse amiss theirs is the loss but the Crime is the Deceivers She who rightly understands wherein the perfection of her Nature consists will lay out her Thoughts and Industry in the acquisition of such Perfections But she who is kept ignorant of the matter will take up with such Objects as first offer themselves and bear any plausible resemblance to what she desires a shew of advantage is sufficient to render them agreeable baits to her who wants Judgment and skill to discern between reality and pretence From whence it easily follows that she who has nothing else to value her self upon will be proud of her Beauty or Money and what that can purchase and think her self mightily oblig'd to him who tells her she has those Perfections which she naturally longs for Her imbred self-esteem and desire of good which are degenerated into Pride and mistaken self-love will easily open her Ears to whatever goes about to nourish and delight them and when a cunning designing Enemy from without has drawn over to his Party these Traytors within he has the Poor unhappy Person at his Mercy who now very glibly swallows down his Poyson because 't is presented in a Golden Cup and credulously hearkens to the most disadvantagious Proposals because they come attended with a seeming esteem She whose Vanity makes her swallow praises by the whole sale without examining whether she deserves them or from what hand they come will reckon it but gratitude to think well of him who values her so much and think she must needs be merciful to the poor dispairing Lover whom her Charms have reduc'd to die at her feet Love and Honour are what every one of us naturally esteem they are excellent things in themselves and very worthy our regard and by how much the readier we are to embrace what ever resembles them by so much the more dangerous it is that these venerable Names should be wretchedly abus'd and affixt to their direct contraries yet this is the Custom of the World And how can she possibly detect the fallacy who has no better Notion of either but what she derives from Plays and Romances How can she be furnished with any solid Principles whose very Instructors are Froth and emptiness Whereas Women were they rightly Educated had they obtain'd a well inform'd and discerning Mind they would be proof against all these Batteries see through and scorn those little silly Artifices which are us'd to ensnare and deceive them Such an one would value her self only on her Vertue and consequently be most chary of what she esteems so much She would know that not what others say but what she her self does is the true Commendation and the only thing that exalts