Alexandria Gazette & Advertiser

FILIAL PIETY.

It is the primal bond of society! it is that instinctive principle, which, panting for its proper good, soothes, unbidden, each sense and sensibility of man! It now quivers on every lip! It now beams from every eye! It is the debt of gratitude, which softening under the sense of recollected good, is eager to own the vast, the countless debt. it ne'er alas! can pay—for so many years of unceasing solicitude, honorable self denials, life preserving cares!—it is that part of our practice where duty drops its awe, where reverence refines into love—it asks no aid of memory—it needs not the deductions of reason—preexisting, paramount over all, whether law or human rule—few arguments can increase and none can diminish it—it is his first great privilege—it is among his last most endearing delights—when the bosom glows with the idea of reverberated love—when to requite on the visitation of nature, and return the blessings that have been received! when what was emotion is fixed into vital principle—what was instinct habituated into a master passion—sways all the sweet energies of man—hangs over each vicissitude of all that must pass away—aids the melancholy virtues in their last sad tasks of life—to cheer the languors of decrepitude and age—explore the thoughts—explaining the aching eye.