journal of M. le Brun, I
find it was the duke de Montpensier who thought this morning of
writing to inquire how I did. You left me yesterday in a very calm
state, and there was no reason for anxiety; but, consistently with the
strict duties of friendship, you ought to have given orders before you
went to bed, for inquiries to be made at eight o'clock in the morning,
to know whether I had had any return of my complaint during the night;
and you should again have sent at ten, to learn from myself, the
instant I awoke, the exact state of my health. Such are the benevolent
and tender cares which a lively and sincere friendship dictates. You
must accustom yourselves to the observance of them, if you wish to be
beloved."

Another day madame de Silleri told the duke de Chartres, that he had a
very idiotic appearance, because, when he went to see his mother, his
attention was taken up by two paroquets which happened to be in the
room. All these reproaches and documents could not, we should
apprehend, tend to increase the real sensibility and affection of
children. Gratitude is one of the most certain, but one of the latest,
rewards, which preceptors and parents should expect from their pupils.
Those who are too impatient to wait for the gradual development of the
affections, will obtain from their children, instead of warm, genuine,
enlightened gratitude, nothing but the expression of cold,
constrained, stupid hypocrisy. During the process of education, a
child cannot perceive its ultimate end; how can he judge whether the
means employed by his parents, are well adapted to effect their
purposes? Moments of restraint and of privation, or, perhaps, of
positive pain, must be endured by children under the mildest system of
education: they must, therefore, perceive, that their parents are the
immediate cause of some evils to them; the remote good is beyond their
view. And can we expect from an infant the systematic resignation of
an optimist? Belief upon trust, is very different from that which
arises from experience; and no one, who understands the human heart,
will expect incompatible feelings: in the mind of a child, the feeling
of present pain is incompatible with gratitude. Mrs. Macaulay mentions
a striking instance of extorted gratitude. A poor child, who had been
taught to return thanks for every thing, had a bitter medicine given
to her; when she had drank it, she curtesied, and said, "Thank you for
my good stuff." There wa