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ever again be overtaken in any of these, through any inadvertency, let the recollection of that saying of Mackintosh, as a friendly monitor, come to your aid,—'that South Bridge has been my ruin!'
"Disobedience to Parents, David," turning to Doubtful, "is perhaps a more serious crime than you imagine. You must know that there is an express command to guard against it, with a promise of long life annexed, to those who attend to it, which, doubtless, implies the threatening of death to its breakers;—but, that you may be perfectly satisfied of the importance of this precept, the wise man says, 'The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pluck it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." As your coming here, however, seems to have been rather accidental, and as you have been your own accuser for disobedience to your parents, I shall not enlarge upon this head farther, than by saying, that I hope in your future conduct, you will abundantly atone for the errors of the past—bearing in mind, that in a short time you may be deprived of one or both of your parents, and be left, like poor Will Candid, without either to advise you—and, remember, that disobedience to parents, and Sabbath-breaking, were mentioned among the causes of Sutherland's ruin.
"But the twinkling stars now beginning to appear, warn me that it is time to be gone; and the evening dews make it already unwholesome to stand on the damp ground. Before I, however, depart, I have one thing to beg of you, which is,
