§. 68. On the other side, honour and support all that which gratitude requires
to return; for the benefits received by and from them is the indispensable duty
of the child and the proper privilege of the parents. This is intended for the
parents' advantage, as the other is for the child's; though education, the
parents' duty, seems to have most power, because the ignorance and infirmities
of childhood stand in need of restraint and correction, which is a visible
exercise of rule and a kind of dominion. And that duty which is comprehended in
the word "honour" requires less obedience, though the obligation be
stronger on grown than younger children. For who can think the command,
"Children, obey your parents," requires in a man that has children of
his own the same submission to his father as it does in his yet young children
to him, and that by this precept he were bound to obey all his father's
commands, if, out of a conceit of authority, he should have the indiscretion to
treat him still as a boy?
