WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING ON THE DUTY OF CHILDREN TO PARENTS

Although the Reverend William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) was known in his day as the apostle of Unitarianism and the leading opponent of Calvinism, his essay on the duty of children to parents will seem quite severe to modern readers. This essay was published in a popular reader used in many New England schools during the 1860s.1 Regard your parents as kindly given you by God, to support, direct, and govern you in your present state of weakness and inexperience. Express your respect for them in your manner and conversation. Do not neglect those outward signs of dependence and inferiority which suit your age. You are young, and you should therefore take the lowest place, and rather retire than thrust yourselves forward into notice. You have much to learn, and you should therefore hear, instead of seeking to be heard. You are dependent, and you should therefore ask instead of demanding what you desire, and you should receive every thing from your parents as a favor, and not as a debt.... You should be grateful to your parents. Consider how much you owe them. The time has been, and it is not a long time past, when you depended wholly on their kindness,—when you had no strength to make a single effort for yourselves,—when you could neither speak nor walk, and knew not the use of any of your powers. Had not a parent's arm supported you, you must have fallen to the earth and perished. Observe the infants which you often see, and consider that a little while ago you were as feeble as they are: you were only a burden and a care, and you had nothing with which you could repay your parents' affection.