believed; the
natural consequence of falsehood, is the loss of trust and confidence;
the natural consequence of all the useful virtues, is esteem; of all
the amiable virtues, love; of each of the prudential virtues, some
peculiar advantage to their possessor. But plum-pudding is not the
appropriate reward of truth, nor is the loss of it the natural or
necessary consequence of falsehood. Prudence is not to be rewarded
with the affection due to humanity, nor is humanity to be recompensed
with the esteem claimed by prudence. Let each good and bad quality
have its proper share of praise and blame, and let the consequences of
each follow as constantly as possible. That young people may form a
steady judgment of the danger of any vice, they must uniformly
perceive, that certain painful consequences result from its practice.
It is in vain that we inflict punishments, unless all the precepts and
all the examples which they see, confirm them in the same belief.

In the unfortunate son of Peter the Great, we have a striking instance
of the effects of a disagreement between precept and example,[63]
which, in a less elevated situation, might have escaped our notice. It
seems as if the different parts and stages of his education had been
purposely contrived to counteract each other. Till he was eleven years
old, he was committed to the care of women, and of ignorant bigotted
priests, who were continually inveighing against his father for the
abolition of certain barbarous customs. Then came baron Huysen for his
governour, a sensible man, who had just begun to make something of his
pupil, when prince Menzikof insisted upon having the sole management
of the unfortunate Alexey. Prince Menzikof abandoned him to the
company of the lowest wretches, who encouraged him in continual
ebriety, and in a taste for every thing mean and profligate. At length
came Euphrosyne, his Finlandish mistress, who, upon his trial for
rebellion, deposed to every angry expression which, in his most
unguarded moments, the wretched son had uttered against the tyrannical
father. Amidst such scenes of contradictory experience, can we be
surprised, that Alexey Petrovitch became feeble, ignorant, and
profligate; that he rebelled against the father whom he had early been
taught to fear and hate; that he listened to the pernicious counsels
of the companions who had, by pretended sympathy and flattery,
obtained that place in his confidence which no parental kindness ha