my giving you Mony?  You Rogue, I’ll better your Judgment, and give you a greater Sense of your Duty to (I regret to say) your Father, &c.”

  “P.S.  It’s Prudence for you to keep out of my Sight; for to reproach
  me, that Might overcomes Right, on the Outside of your Letter, I shall
  give you a great Knock on the Skull for it.”

Was there ever such an Image of Paternal Tenderness!  It was usual among some of the Greeks to make their Slaves drink to Excess, and then expose them to their Children, who by that means conceived an early Aversion to a Vice which makes Men appear so monstrous and irrational.  I have exposed this Picture of an unnatural Father with the same Intention, that its Deformity may deter others from its Resemblance.  If the Reader has a mind to see a Father of the same Stamp represented in the most exquisite Stroaks of Humour, he may meet with it in one of the finest Comedies that ever appeared upon the English Stage:  I mean the Part of Sir Sampson [1] in ‘Love for Love’.

I must not however engage my self blindly on the Side of the Son, to whom the fond Letter above-written was directed.  His Father calls him a sawcy and audacious Rascal in the first Line, and I am afraid upon Examination he will prove but an ungracious Youth. To go about railing at his Father, and to find no other Place but the Outside of his Letter to tell him that Might overcomes Right, if it does not discover his Reason to be depraved, and that he is either Fool or Mad, as the cholerick old Gentleman tells him, we may at least allow that the Father will do very well in endeavouring to better his Judgment, and give him a greater Sense of his Duty.  But whether this may be brought about by breaking his Head, or giving him a great Knock on the Skull, ought, I think, to be well considered.  Upon the whole, I wish the Father has not met with his Match, and that he may not be as equally paired with a Son, as the Mother in Virgil.

  ...  Crudelis tu quoque mater: 
  Crudelis mater magis an puer Improbus ille? 
  Improbus ille puer, crudelis tu quoque mater. [2]

Or like the Crow and her Egg, in the Greek Proverb,

  [Greek (transliterated):  Kakou korakos kakhon oon. [3]]

I must here take Notice of a Letter which I have received from an unknown Correspondent, upon the Subject of my Paper, upon which the foregoing Letter is likewise founded.  The Writer of it seems very much concerned lest that Paper should seem to give Encouragement to the Disobedience of Children towards their Parents; but if the Writer of it will take the Pains to read it over again attentively, I dare say his Apprehensions will vanish.  Pardon and Reconciliation are all the Penitent Daughter requests, and all that I contend for in her Behalf; and in this Case I may use the Saying of an eminent Wit, who, upon some great Men pressing him to forgive his Daughter who had married against his Consent, told them he could refuse nothing to their Instances, but that he would have them remember there was Difference between Giving and Forgiving.