that I suppose no one who saw his odd manner of gesticulating, much blamed or wondered at the good lady's solicitude concerning her son's behaviour.
Though he was attentive to the peace of children in general, no man had a stronger contempt than he for such parents as openly profess that they cannot govern their children. 'How (says he) is an army governed? Such people, for the most part, multiply prohibitions till obedience becomes impossible, and authority appears absurd; and never suspect that they tease their family, their friends, and themselves, only because conversation runs low, and something must be said.'
Of parental authority, indeed, few people thought with a lower degree of estimation.[1] I one day mentioned the resignation of Cyrus to his father's will, as related by Xenophon, when, after all his conquests, he requested the consent of Cambyses to his marriage with a neighbouring princess; and I added Rollin's applause and recommendation of the example. 'Do you not perceive then (says Johnson), that Xenophon on this occasion commends like a pedant, and Pere [sic] Rollin applauds like a slave? If Cyrus by his conquests had not purchased emancipation, he had conquered to little purpose indeed. Can you bear to see the folly of a fellow who has in his care the lives of thousands, when he begs his papa permission to be married, and confesses his inability to decide in a matter which concerns no man's happiness but his own[2]?'—Mr. Johnson caught me another
- ↑ It was parental tyranny that Johnson condemned. Life, i. 346, n. 2; iii. 377. For his lament over 'the general relaxation of reverence' see ib. iii. 262.
- ↑ Ascham, before Rollin, 'had applauded like a slave.' In his Schoolmaster (Works, 1864, iii. 121) he writes: 'And see the great obedience that was used in old time to fathers and governors. No son, were he never so old of years, never so great of birth, though he were a king's son, might marry but by his father's and mother's also consent. Cyrus the Great, after he had conquered Babylon and subdued rich King Croesus, with whole Asia Minor, coming triumphantly home, his uncle Cyaxares offered him his daughter to wife. Cyrus thanked his uncle and praised the maid; but for marriage, he answered him with these wise and sweet words, as they be uttered by Xenophon, &c.' See Cyropaedia, viii. 5. 20.
