as well as the moſt ſublime proof of affection; and the want of this power over the feelings, and of that lofty, dignified affection, which makes a perſon prefer the future good of the beloved object to a preſent gratification, is the reaſon why ſo many fond mothers ſpoil their children, and has made it queſtionable whether negligence or indulgence is moſt hurtful: but I am inclined to think, that the latter has done moſt harm.
Mankind ſeem to agree that children ſhould be left under the management of women during their childhood. Now, from all the obſervation that I have been able to make, women of ſenſibility are the moſt unfit for this taſk, becauſe they will infallibly, carried away by their feelings, ſpoil a child's temper. The management of the temper, the firſt, and moſt important branch of education, requires the ſober ſteady eye of reaſon; a plan of conduct equally diſtant from tyranny and indulgence: yet theſe are the extremes that people of ſenſibility alternately fall into; always ſhooting beyond the mark. I have followed this train of reaſoning much further, till I have concluded, that a perſon of genius is the moſt improper perſon to be employed in education, public or private. Minds of this rare ſpecies ſee things too much in maſſes, and ſeldom, if ever, have a good temper. That habitual cheerfulneſs, termed good-humour, is, perhaps, as ſeldom united with great mental powers, as with ſtrong feelings. And thoſe people who follow, with intereſt and admiration, the flights of genius; or, with cooler approbation ſuck in the inſtruction which has been elaborately prepared
