We will get
into their company at their own houses; and here we shall very soon
discover, how wearisome they consider every hour, that is spent in the
bosom of their families, when deprived of their accustomed amusements;
and with what anxiety they count the time, when they are to be restored
to their favourite rounds of pleasure. We shall find no difficulty in
judging also from their conversation, the measure of their thought or
their solicitude about their children. A new play is sure to claim the
earliest attention or discussion. The capital style, in which an actor
performed his part on a certain night, furnishes conversation for an
hour. Observations on a new actress perhaps follow. Such subjects appear
more interesting to such persons, than the innocent conversation, or
playful pranks, of their children. If the latter are noisy, they are
often sent out of the room as troublesome, though the same parents can
bear the stunning plaudits, or the discordant groans and hissings of the
audience at the theatre. In the mean time their children grow up, and in
their turn, are introduced by their parents to these amusements, as to
places, proper for the dissipation of vacant hours; till, by frequent
attendances, they themselves lose an affection for home and the domestic
duties, and have in time as little regard for their parents, as their
parents appear to have had for them.
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