nts to make their children
contract the habit of every action useful to themselves and to society.

Q. Why is paternal tenderness a virtue in parents?

A. Because parents, who rear their children in those habits, procure for
themselves, during the course of their lives, enjoyments and helps that
give a sensible satisfaction at every instant, and which assure to them,
when advanced in years, supports and consolations against the wants and
calamities of all kinds with which old age is beset.

Q. Is paternal love a common virtue?

A. No; notwithstanding the ostentation made of it by parents, it is
a rare virtue. They do not love their children, they caress and spoil
them. In them they love only the agents of their will, the instruments
of their power, the trophies of their vanity, the pastime of their
idleness. It is not so much the welfare of their children that they
propose to themselves, as their submission and obedience; and if among
children so many are seen ungrateful for benefits received, it
is because there are among parents as many despotic and ignorant
benefactors.

Q. Why do you say that conjugal love is a virtue?

A. Because the concord and union resulting from the love of the married,
establish in the heart of the family a multitude of habits useful to its
prosperity and preservation. The united pair are attached to, and seldom
quit their home; they superintend each particular direction of it; they
attend to the education of their children; they maintain the respect and
fidelity of domestics; they prevent all disorder and dissipation;
and from the whole of their good conduct, they live in ease and
consideration; while married persons who do not love one another, fill
their house with quarrels and troubles, create dissension between their
children and the servants, leaving both indiscriminately to all kinds of
vicious habits; every one in turn spoils, robs, and plunders the house;
the revenues are absorbed without profit; debts accumulate; the married
pair avoid each other, or contend in lawsuits; and the whole family
falls into disorder, ruin, disgrace and want.

Q. Is adultery an offence in the law of nature?

A. Yes; for it is attended with a number of habits injurious to the
married and to their families. The wife or husband, whose affections
are estranged, neglect their house, avoid it, and deprive it, as much as
they can, of its revenues or income, to expend them with the object of
their affecti