or twelve.
Of what _use_, then, all the restraints, all the privations, all the
pain, that you have inflicted upon him? He falls, and leaves your mind
to brood over the possibility of your having abridged a life so dear to
you.' I do not recollect the very words; but the passage made a deep
impression upon my mind, just at the time, too, when I was about to
become a father; and I was resolved never to bring upon myself remorse
from such a cause; a resolution from which no importunities, coming from
what quarter they might, ever induced me, in one single instance, or for
one single moment, to depart. I was resolved to forego all the means of
making money, all the means of living in any thing like fashion, all the
means of obtaining fame or distinction, to give up every thing, to
become a common labourer, rather than make my children lead a life of
restraint and rebuke; I could not be _sure_ that my children would love
me as they loved their own lives; but I was, at any rate, resolved to
deserve such love at their hands; and, in possession of that, I felt
that I could set calamity, of whatever description, at defiance.

282. Now, proceeding to relate what was, in this respect, my line of
conduct, I am not pretending that _every_ man, and particularly every
man living in _a town_, can, in all respects, do as I did in the rearing
up of children. But, in many respects, any man may, whatever may be his
state of life. For I did not lead an idle life; I had to work constantly
for the means of living; my occupation required unremitted attention; I
had nothing but my labour to rely on; and I had no friend, to whom, in
case of need, I could fly for assistance: I always saw the possibility,
and even the probability, of being totally ruined by the hand of power;
but, happen what would, I was resolved, that, as long as I could cause
them to do it, my children should lead happy lives; and happy lives they
did lead, if ever children did in this whole world.

283. The first thing that I did, when the fourth child had come, was to
_get into the country_, and so far as to render a going backward and
forward to London, at short intervals, quite out of the question. Thus
was _health_, the greatest of all things, provided for, as far as I was
able to make the provision. Next, my being _always at home_ was secured
as far as possible; always with them to set an example of early rising,
sobriety, and application to something or other. Children,