(6)
adultery ſhould be puniſhed with the loſs of both his eyes. Soon after this eſtabliſhment the legiſlator's own ſon was apprehended in the very fact, and broughr to a public trial. How could the father acquit himſelf in to tender and delicate a conjuncture? Should he execute the law in all its rigour, this would be worſe than death to the unhappy youth; ſhould he pardon ſo notorious a delinquent, this would defeat the deſign of his ſalutary inſtitution. To avoid both theſe inconveniences, he ordered one of his own eyes to be pulled out, and one of his ſon's
Adesilaus, king of Sparta, was of all mankind one of the moſt tender and indulgent fathers to his children. It is reported of him, that when they were little he would play with them, and divert himſelf and them with riding upon a ſtick: and that having been ſurpriſed by a friend in that action, he deſired him "not to tell any body of it till he himſelf was a father."
The anſwer, which Cornelia, the illuſtrious mother of the Gracchi, gave to a Campanian lady, includes in it great inſtruction for mothers.
That lady, after ſhe had diſplayed, in a viſit ſhe made, her richeſt jewels, earneſtly
