something belonging to the relation of parent. See PARENT.
PARENTAL Affection, the endearing attachment of parents to their children, including in it love; a desire of doing good to those who by an act of our own depend upon us for all that they enjoy. Nature even excites this affection in brutes: but in them it continues only so long as it is necessary for the preservation of their offspring; for when these are able to provide for themselves, it ceases, and the relation is forgotten. In man, however, though it lessens, or at least becomes less anxious as the dependence of the child becomes less, it never entirely ceases, except in some few instances of extreme depravity. Authors, however, have imagined, and Lord Kames* among the rest, that after the child is provided for, and no more depends on the parent, all affection would cease, were it not artificially preserved and confirmed by habit. Whether his lordship, in this opinion, be right or wrong, we shall not pretend to say. One thing, however, is certain, that be it natural or not, it is one of the greatest comforts of life, even when all dependence has ceased. It matters not that there are many instances where this comfort is not felt. Human depravity has often obliterated the finest feelings of the mind; and it is not to be wondered at if in some instances it do so in the cafe before us. A good heart certainly can enjoy no greater satisfaction than that arising from grateful returns of kindnels and affection to an aged parent. As the vexations which parents receive from their children hasten the approach of age, and double the force of years; fo the comforts which they reap from them are balm to all other sorrows, and disappoint the injuries of time.
Parents repeat their lives in their offsprings; and their concern for them is so near, that they feel all their sufferings, and taste all their enjoyments, as much as if they regarded their own persons. However strong we may suppose the fondness of a father for his children, yet they will find more lively marks of tenderness in the bosom of a mother. There are no ties in nature to compare with those which unite an affectionate mother to her children, when they repay her tenderness with obedience and love.
We have a remarkable instance of parental affection in Zaleucus † prince of the Locrines; who made a decretal, cree, that whoever was convicted of adultery should be punished with the loss of both his eyes. Soon after this establishment, the legislator's own son was apprehended in the very fact, and brought to a public trial. How could the father acquit himself in so tender and delicate a conjuncture? Should he execute the law in all its rigour, this would be worse than death to the unhappy youth: should he pardon so notorious a delinquent, this would defeat the design of his salutary institution. To avoid both these inconveniences, he ordered one of his own eyes to be pulled out and one of his son's.
Diodorus Siculus also, lib. 34, relates a surprising instance of the fame warm affection. Cambalus, a young gentleman of character and fortune in the city of Mugaeum, being one day out courting, was way-laid, and very near being robbed and murdered by the banditti who infested that part of the country. Gorgus, the young gentleman's father, happened to come by at the very instant, to whom Cambalus related the danger he was in. 'The son was on foot, the father on horseback; but no sooner had he heard the melancholy tale, than he leapt from his horse, defied his son to mount, and make the best of his way into the city: but Cambalus, preferring his father's safety to his own, would by no means consent to it; on the contrary, conjured his father to leave him, and take care of himself. The father, struck with the generosity and affection of his son, added tears to entreaties, but all to no purpose. The contest between them is better conceived than described—while bathed in tears, and beseeching each other to preserve his own life, the banditti approached and stabbed them both.'
Amongst the ancient Greeks, the sentiments of parental affection were exceedingly strong and ardent. The mutual tenderness of the husband and the wife was communicated to their offspring; while the father viewed in his child the charms of its mother, and the mother perceived in it the manly graces of its father. As parental kindness is the most simple and natural expansion of self-love, so there are innumerable instances of it in all countries savage and civilized.
* PARENTALIA, in antiquity, funeral obsequies, or the last duties paid by children to their deceased parents.