A treatise of morality in two parts / written in French by F. Malbranch, author of The search after truth ; and translated into English, by James Shipton, M.A.

CHAP. X. Of the Domestick Duties of Husband and Wife. The Ground of these Duties. Of the Duties of Parents toward their Children, with relation to the Eternal and Civil Societies. Of their instruction in the Sciencies and Morality. Parents should give their Children a good example. They should govern them by Reason. They have no right to use them ill. Children owe Obe∣diene to their Parents in all Things.

I. THose that govern the State have not a continual relation to all the particular Members of which it is compos'd, and there are a great many People who never in their life receive any Command from their So∣vereign or his Ministers: Therefore that which I have said in the last Chapter, is not of so great and general use, as the Explication of the mutual Duties of Husband and Wife, Parents and Children, Masters and Servants, a Lord and his Tenants, or those that are under his Ju∣risdiction, and such Persons as daily converse together, and have many different relations to one another. We should inform our selves more particularly of these pri∣vate and domestick Duties. I shall therefore endea∣vour to fix the Grounds and Principles of them, from which every one may easily deduce Consequences.

II. The nearest Union that can be betwixt any Per∣sons, is that of the Man and the Woman; for it ex∣presly figures the Union of Chirst with his Church. It is an indissoluble Union; for God being immutable in his Designs, the Marriage of Christ and his Church shall continue for ever; it is a natural Union, and the two Sexes, by their particular constitution, in conse∣quences of the admirable Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body, have the most violent of all the Pas∣sions for each other; because the love of Christ to his Church, and that of the Church to her Lord, her Sa∣viour and her Husband, is the greatest love that can be imagin'd, as appears from the Canticles. For in short, the Man and the Woman are made for one another.

And if we can conceive that God in creating them, had not a design to join them together, then we may al∣so conceive that the Incarnation of the Word was not necessary; and that the principal, or the only design of God, which is figur'd by the marriage of the Man and the Woman, more particularly than by any other thing, is not the establishment of his Church in Jesus Christ, who is the Basis and Foundation of it, in whom also the whole Universe subsists, who brings the whole Work of God out of its prophane State, and by his quality of Son, renders it worthy of the Majesty of the Fa∣ther.

III. This Principle sufficiently shews, that the mutual Duties of Christ and his Church, are the Model of those of Husbands and Wives; and that the Marriage of Christians, like that of the first Man and Woman, being the figure of the marriage of Christ and the Church, ought not to differ in any of its consequences or circumstances from the reality which it represents. And therefore St. Paul derives from this very Principle, the mutual Duties of the Husband and Wife. His Words are these:

IV.

Wives, submit your selves unto your own Husbands, as unto the Lord. For the Husband is the Head of the Wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church; and he is the Saviour of the Body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the Wives be to their own Husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your Wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water, by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies; he that loveth his Wife, loveth himself: For no Man ever yet hated his own Flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church; for we are Members of his Body, of his Flesh, and of his Bones. For this cause shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother, and shall be join'd unto his Wife, and they two shall be one Flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concern∣ing

Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular, so love his Wife even as himself; and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband.

V. From these admirable Words of St. Paul, we see that the Duty of a Husband is to maintain his Wife, and to supply her abundantly with all things necessary for her subsistence; to assist and guide her by his Wis∣dom and Counsels, and to comfort her in her Afflictions and Infirmities; in a word, to love her as himself, and after the example of Christ, to expose his life for her defense. And that the Wife on her part ought to obey her Husband as her Lord, to fear and respect him, to seek to please none but him, and to govern the Family in subordination to his Authority, and with a depen∣dence on his Designs, provided they are agreeable, or at least not contrary to the designs of God.

VI. Now the design of God in the institution of Marriage, is not only to supply the State with Mem∣bers to compose the Body of it, and to defend and main∣tain its Honour and Reputation; but more especially to furnish Christ with Materials for the external Temple, with Members of the Church, and perpetual Worship∣pers of the divine Majesty. For married Persons are not only the Figures, but also the natural Ministers of Christ and the Church. God hath join'd them together not only to express his great design, but also to act in it. It is true, since Sin came into the World, they be∣get Children only for the Devil, and by an action al∣together brutish; and if it were not for Christ our Me∣diatour, it would be a hainous Crime to communicate to a Woman that miserable fertility of bringing forth an Enemy of God, to damn a Soul for ever, to labour for the Glory of Satan, and the establishment of the in∣fernal Babylon. But Christ came to remedy the disor∣ders of Sin; and it is permitted by the Sacrament of Marriage, the Figure of his eternal Alliance, to give our Children, as I may say, to the Devil, that Christ may have the glory to snatch them out of his Hands, and having wash'd them in his own Blood, to make them enter into his Building.

VII. Now the principal Duty of Parents is to edu∣cate their Children in such a manner, that they may not lose their Baptismal Innocence and Purity. Mar∣ried Persons may live in continence, as Adam and Eve did before their Sin. Christ doth not want Materials for the building of his Temple. How many Nations are there still that are ignorant of the Mystery of our Reconciliation? But that Parents by their Ambition, their Avarice, their disorderly course of Life, their ill Example, nay by barely neglecting to instruct their Children, should deprive them of the possession of the true Goods, and make them fall again into the slavery of the Devil, in which they were Born, and from which they had been once deliver'd; this is the greatest Crime that Men are capable of committing.

VIII. A Father may educate his Children so as to be the Honour of his Family, the delight of their Country, and the support of the State; he may leave them the peaceable enjoyment of large Possessions, and all possi∣ble Splendour: Yet still he is a cruel and unnatural Father, and the more cruel, because he charms their Maladies in such a manner, that they will not be sen∣sible of them, till they are past remedy: He is Impious and Wicked, and so much the more, because with that which he pulls down from the sacred Temple of the living God, he builds up the prophane Babylon: He is Senseless and stupid, and the more because there cannot be a greater degreee of Folly, a more gross Stupidity, a more brutish and surious Despair, than that of a Father who is regardless of the inevitable al∣ternative of Two very different Eternities, which shall succeed our latest Moments; who builds for himself and his Family on the Brow of a Precipice expos'd to Storms and Tempests, and just ready to bury for ever the miserable Object of his Glory and Plea∣sures.

IX. A Parent therefore that would preserve to his Children the inestimable right which they have ac∣quir'd by Baptism, to the inheritance of Christ, must be always watchful in removing out of their sight all Objects that may tempt them. He is their guardian Angel, and should take up out of their way every Stone that may make them fall. It is his Duty to instruct

them in the Mysteries of Faith, and by Faith to lead them by degrees to the understanding of the funda∣mental Truths of Religion, to fix in them a firm hope of the true Goods and a generous contempt of humane Greatness. He should shape their Mind to Perfection, and teach them to exercise the faculties of it. He should govern them by Reason; for there cannot be a more perfect Law, than that which God himself inviolably follows. But he must begin with Faith: For Men, especially the younger sort, are too sensual, too carnal, too much abroad to consult the Reason which dwels within them. It must shew it self without, cloth'd with a Body to strike their Senses. They must sub∣mit to a visible Authority, before they can contemplate the evidence of intellectual Truths. Again, a Father should never grant his Children any thing that they ask themselves, and never deny them any thing that Reason asks for them: for Reason should be the com∣mon Law, the general Rule of all our Wills. He should accustom them to obey, as well as consult it. He should make them give a reason either a good or a plausible one, for every thing that they ask; and then he may gratify their desires, tho' they are not so agreable to Reason, if he is satisfied that their intent was to obey Reason. He should not chide them too much, for fear of discouraging them. But this is an indispensa∣ble Precept never to act but according to Reason. The Soul should will nothing of it self: For it is not its own Rule, or its own Law. It doth not possess Power; it is not Independent. It ought not to will but with a dependence on the immutable Law, because it cannot think, act, nor enjoy Good, but by a dependence on the divine Power. This is what young People ought to know: But it is perhaps what the old ones do not know: It is certainly what all Men do not practise.

X. We should take care not to burden the Memory of Children with a great number of Actions, which are of little use, and serve only to confound and agitate a Mind which hath as yet but very little Strength and Capacity, and is but too much disturb'd and shaken al∣ready by the action of sensible Objects. But we should endeavour to make them clearly comprehend the cer∣tain Principles of solid Sciences. We should use them

to contemplate clear Ideas, and above all we should teach them to distinguish the Soul from the Body, and to know the different properties and modifications of these two Substances of which they are compos'd. We should be so far from confirming them in their Error of taking their Senses for Judges of Truth, by talking to them of sensible Objects as of the true causes of their Pleasure and Pain, that we should be always telling them that their Senses deceive them; and should use them in their Presence like false Witnesses, that clash with one another to discover their Cheats and Illu∣sions.

XI. Children dye at ten Years old, as well as Men at Fifty or Threescore. What then will become of a Child at his Death, whose Heart is already corrupted, who is swell'd with esteem of his Quality, and full of the love of sensual Enjoyments? What Good will it do him in the other World, to understand perfectly the the Geography of this; and in Eternity, to know the Epochas of Times? All our knowledge perishes in Death, and the knowledge of these things leads to no∣thing beyond. A Lad knows how to Decline and Conjugate, he understands Greek and Latin it may be perfectly well; nay perhaps he is already well vers'd in History, and acquainted with the Interests of Princes; he promises much for this World, for which he is not made; but what signify all these Vanities, with which his Mind and Heart is sill'd? Are there solid rewards in Heaven for empty Studies? Are there places of Honour destin'd for those that make a correct Theme? Will God judge Children by any other Law than the immutable Order, than the Precepts of the Gospel, which they have neither observ'd nor known. Is it the Duty of Fathers to breed up their Children for the State, and not for Heaven; for their Prince, and not for Jesus Christ; for a Society of a few Days, and not for an eternal Society? But let them take notice, that those that are best skill'd in these vain Sciences, are they that do most mischief to the State, and raise the greatest Tempests in it. I do not say but they may learn those Sciences: But it should be then when their Mind is form'd, and when they are capable of making a good use of it; and the instructing of them

in essential Truths, should not be put off to a time when they shall be no more, or at least not in a condition to Tast, Meditate and Feed upon them.

XII. The labour of Attention being the only way that leads to the understanding of Truth, a Father should use all means of accustoming his Children to be Attentive. Therefore I think it proper to teach them the most sensible part of the Mathematicks: Not that these Sciences, tho' preferable to many others, are in themselves of any great value, but because the Study of them is of such a Nature, that a Man makes no progress in them any farther than he is Attentive. For in reading a Book of Geometry, if the Mind doth not labour by its Attention, it gets nothing. Now People should be us'd to the labour of the Mind when they are young: For then the parts of the Brain are flexible, and may be bent any way. It is easy then to acquire a habit of being Attentive, in which, as I have shewn, the whole strength of the Mind consists. And therefore those that have accustom'd themselves from their youth to meditate on clear Principles, are not only capable of learning all the Sciences, but are also able to judge solidly of every thing, to govern them∣selves by abstracted Principles, to make ingenious dis∣coveries, and to foresee the consequences and events of Enterprises.

XIII. But the So•…•…nces of Memory confound the Mind, they disturb its clear Ideas, and furnish it with a Thousand probabilities on all sorts of Subjects, which Men take up with, because they know not how to di∣stinguish between seeing in part, and obscurely, and seeing fully and clearly. This resting on probabilities makes them wrangle and dispute endlesly. For as Truth alone is one, indivisible and immutable, so that alone can closely and for ever unite Men's Minds. Be∣sides the Sciences of Memory do naturally beget Pride. For the Soul doth as it were enlarge and extend it self through the multitude of things with which the Head is fill'd. And tho' the content of the Mind be then taken up, as I may say, with nothing but Emptiness, or with things of little or no use, as the position of Bodies, the the series of Times, the actions and opinions of Men; yet it imagines it self to have as great an extent, du∣ration

and reality, as the objects of its Knowledge. It stretches it self to all the parts of the World. It goes back to past Ages; and instead of considering the nature of its own Being, what it is at present, and what it shall be in eternity, it forgets its self and its own Country, and wanders in an imaginary World, in Histories made up of Realities which are now no more, and Chimera's which never were.

XIV. Not that we should slight History, for ex∣ample, and never study any but the solid Sciences, such as of themselves make the Mind perfect, and re∣gulate the Heart. But we should study them all in their proper order. A Man may apply himself to History, when he knows himself, his Religion, and his Duties; when his Mind is form'd, and he is thereby capable of distinguishing, at least in some measure, between the Truth of the History, and the Imaginations of the Historian. He may study Languages: But it should be when he is Philosopher enough to know what a Language is: When he throughly understands that of his own Country: And when the desire of knowing the Thoughts of the Ancients, begets in him a desire of knowing the Language: For then he will learn more in one Year, than he can in Ten, without this desire. He must be a Man, a Christian, an Englishman, be∣fore he is a Grammarian, a Poet, an Historian, or a Foreigner. He should not study even the Mathematicks, only to fill his Head with the properties of Lines, but in order to procure to his Mind, that strength, extent and perfection of which it is capable. In a word, he should begin his studies with those Sciences that are most necessary, or such as may most contribute to the perfection of his Mind and Heart. He that only knows how to distinguish the Soul from the Body, and doth not confound his Thoughts and Desires with the dif∣ferent motions of his Machine, is more solidly learned, and more capable of being so, by the knowledge of this one real Science, than he that understands the Histories, Laws and Languages of all Nations, but withal is so deeply Buried, as I may say, in the Ig∣norance of his own Being, that he takes himself for the more subtil part of his Body, and imagines that

the immortality of the Soul is a Question not to be re∣solv'd.

XV. I am satisfied that I speak nothing but Para∣doxes, and that it would need a great many Words to persuade others to be of my Opinion. But I would have them only open their Eyes. Do we find that those who understand Virgil and Horace very well are wiser Men than those that understand S. Paul but in∣differently? It is experience that must convince such as will not consult Reason. Now where is the expe∣rience which proves that the reading of Tully is more useful than that of the all-divine Words of the eternal Wisdom? O, say they, we make Boys read Tully for the Latin. But why do not they make them read the Gospel for Religion and Morality? Poor Children! they breed you up like Citizens of old Rome, and you will get its Language and its Morals. They ne∣never think to make you reasonable Men, true Chri∣stians, and Inhabitants of the holy City. You are mi∣staken, say they, we do think of it, we do make it our business: But I am sure it's not the fashion to mind it throughly. St. Augustin lamented this in vain, and it is to no purpose that I trouble my self about it. We shall still see young Lads when they come from School, and ought to know something, for none of them scarce mind any thing afterwards; we shall still see them, I say, ignorant in the knowledge of Man, of Religion and Morality. For can they be said to know Man, who cannot so much as distinguish the Soul from the Body? Have they learnt the first elements of Religion and Morality, who are not fully convinc'd of original Sin, and the necessity of a Mediator? They are well stockt with the precepts of Grammar. They can say Lilly by Heart, and repeat all the cramp Words in Faruaby and Butler. This is sufficient. They can declaim pro and con on any Subject. A rare Qua∣lification indeed, to be able equally to maintain Truth and Falshood, without knowing how to distinguish one from the other! But what! It is not reasonable that Boys should know more than their Fathers: Nor is it fit that they should have more Learning than some of their Masters.

XVI. But I leave it to Tutors and School-masters to examine the order of their Duties, and to take care of the performance of them. For I would not have Pa∣rents oblig'd to instruct their Children themselves, be∣cause a great many are not capable of doing it, or have other business, which you shall never persuade them to be of less Importance than the education of their Chil∣dren: But then they should endeavour at least to choose a good Master. Let them not imagine that a Young Man who only understands Greek and Latin, and doth not know, much less can govern himself, is a fit Person to in∣form the Mind and regulate the Heart of a Child. But when they have happily met with one that is, let them not by their Example and Behaviour pull down that which a Tutor by his Pains and Diligence hath been build∣ing up. Children, by reason of their weakness and de∣pendence, are extremely affected with the Language of the Imagination and Senses, with the outward Air and Behaviour, especially of their Parents. This is a natural Language which persuades insensibly, it penetrates the Soul, and in a delightful manner begets conviction and assurance in the Mind.

XVII. If a Master teaches his Scholars to judge of things by Principles of Religion and Reason, to silence their Senses, Imagination and Passions, to despise sensi∣ble Objects, humane Greatness, and transitory Plea∣sures; an indiscreet Father shall talk of these false Goods before his Children, with such an Air, Voice and Gestures, as are able to shake a setled Mind, and move even those that are least prone to Imitation. Perhaps he may speak to them of the true Goods: But then his Discourse shall be so Cold and Faint, that it shall only beget in them contempt and aversion. But you shall hear him Twenty times a Day, and that with concern, bid them hold up their Head, keep their Body steady, and carry themselves handsomly. He shall applaud and commend them for repeating a few passionate Lines with a Grace. He shall sensibly dis∣cover his Joy by the Air of his Face, if he finds in them any qualification which the World esteems, and only make a Jest and a Diversion of their greatest and most material Imperfections, such as discover to those that are skill'd in the knowledge of Man, an abominable

pravity and corruption. And if a Tutor tho' never so good a Christian and a sensible Man should go about to extinguish their Pride and Self-love; the Approba∣tion of a peremptory Father, or a fond Mother shall beget in them such a hatred and contempt of him, as shall make him incapable of ever doing them any good. Maxima debetur puero re••erentia, saith a judicious Author. Example and outward Behaviour irresistibly persuade young People, when they suit with the corrup∣tion of their Nature: And he that without saying a Word, doth Evil in their Sight, with an Air of Plea∣sure and Satisfaction, speaks to them more strongly and forceably, than he that discourses to them coldly of Vertue, and exhorts them to follow it. This is a matter that deserves the greatest consideration, with respect to the instruction and education of Youth.

XVIII. There are some Fathers who always use their Children Arbitrarily and Tyrannically: They never do them Justice: They are severe to them with∣out cause; and instead of enlightning them by Rea∣son, and making them submit to it, they fancy that the Will of a Father is the inviolable Law of a Child. But when the Father is Dead, what then will be the Law of the Son? Without doubt his own Will: For he hath never been told that there is an eternal Law, the immutable Order: He hath not been accustom'd to obey it. Nay he will not stay till his Father be Dead, or grown Old and unable to keep him in Sla∣very any longer, before he prescribes a Law to him∣self. He will naturally find it in his Pleasures. For this unjust and brutish Law is better perhaps than the will of an unreasonable Father; I am sure it is more agreable and easy. A young Man will quickly be satisfied of this, when once he hath tasted the sweet∣ness of it. And then whether the Father be dead or alive, the Son will easily find means to obey this Law, and yield to its Enchantments. He will look upon his Father as an Enemy and a Tyrant, if he hath yet Strength and Vigour enough left to interrupt him in his Pleasures, and disturb him in his Debauches: and Being persuaded by the example and conduct of his Father, that every thing ought to obey his own Will and Pleasure, he will employ all his Power, and all

those Persons over whom he hath any Authority, in gra∣tifying his desires. For he will find himself actually happy, in giving himself up to his Pleasures; and will not have Education and Experience enough to appre∣hend the fatal Consequences of them. Children there∣fore should be govern'd by Reason, as far as they are capable of it. They have ••ll the same Inclinations with grown Men, tho' the Objects of their desires are dif∣ferent; and they will never be solidly Vertuous, if they are not accustom'd to obey a Law which shall never perish, if their Mind which was form'd after the universal Reason, be not form'd anew after the same Reason made sensible by Faith.

XIX. A Father must not imagine that his quality of Father gives him an absolute and independent Sove∣reignty over his Son. He is a Father only by the Ef∣ficacy of the Power of God; and therefore he ought not to command his Son but according to the Law of God. He is a Father in consequence of a bru••ish A∣ction, in which he knows not what he doth; for it is only Experience which teaches him, that in gratifying his Passion, he also preserves his Species. What Right can he have over the Mind and Heart of another Man, from an Action like that of Brutes, an Action which he ought to blush at, and which I am asham'd to men∣tion? A Mother carries her Burden with a great deal of Trouble and Hardship, and brings it into the World with extreme Pains. But she doth not give it Shape and Growth, much less doth she give a Being to the Soul which animates her Child: Therefore she hath no Right to command him but in Subordination to the universal Reason, because she had no power to conceive him, but by the Efficacy of the divine Power.

XX. Nevertheless, a Son should stand in fear of his Parents when they are angry with him; for God who gives and preserves his Being, God who can throw him headlong into Hell, God who hath all manner of Au∣thority over him, commands him by his Law to obey them; and by that command gives them a Right to command him. But Parents should not make use of this Right against the Will of him from whom they receive it; They should not assume it to themselves as a Reward of a sinful, or at least an indecent and

beastly Action; They should employ it in promoting the great Design of God, the eternal Temple, the end and ma∣ster-piece of all his Works; in labouring not for Time but for Eternity, and preserving in the Members of Christ the Spirit of Holiness which they receiv'd at their Baptism. And Children on their part should pay Obedience to their Parents, as to God himself whose Person they represent; They should shew a Respect in their presence as in the presence of the Almighty; They should endeavour all they can to please them, and fur∣ther their designs, as far as Order permits. Perhaps they shall not live ever the longer upon Earth; for this was the Reward of the Jews, but they shall live eternally happy in Heaven with the well-beloved Son of God, who was obedient to his Father unto death, even the shameful and cruel death of the Cross.

Notes

• Eph. 5.22
• Part I. Chap. V.
• Confess. l. 1.
• The great∣est Reve∣rence and Respect should be shew'd to Children.