But this does not demand a great fortune; but a simple competency, that is,
just enough to meet their immediate wants and emergencies when they enter
the world and begin business-life. This competence should correspond with
the social position they occupied under the parental roof. It should not
go beyond this; it should be just enough to meet the social and financial
exigencies of the child. It should be measured also by the peculiar
necessities of the child, by his health, abilities and circumstances. "A
parent is justified," says Paley in his Moral and Political Philosophy, "in
making a difference between his children according as they stand in greater
or less need of the assistance of his fortune, in consequence of the
difference of their age or sex, or of the situations in which they are
placed, or the various success which they have met with."
Now the law of competence does not demand, yea, it forbids, more than a
sufficiency to meet these peculiar exigencies of the child. Those parents
who seek for more, become parsimonious, unfaithful to the moral interests
of their household, and indifferent to all legitimate objects of charity
and benevolence. These are indeed but the necessary fruits of
unfaithfulness to this law; for the course of God's providence indicates
the impossibility of our faithfulness to the duty of Christian beneficence,
and at the same time lay up for our children more than a sufficiency.
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