" (10)
When ex-President Adams was present at the examination of a girls'
school at Boston, he was presented by the pupils with an address
which deeply affected him; and in acknowledging it, he took the
opportunity of referring to the lasting influence which womanly
training and association had exercised upon his own life and
character. "As a child," he said, "I enjoyed perhaps the greatest
of blessings that can be bestowed on man--that of a mother, who
was anxious and capable to form the characters of her children
rightly. From her I derived whatever instruction (religious
especially, and moral) has pervaded a long life--I will not say
perfectly, or as it ought to be; but I will say, because it is
only justice to the memory of her I revere, that, in the course of
that life, whatever imperfection there has been, or deviation from
what she taught me, the fault is mine, and not hers."
The Wesleys were peculiarly linked to their parents by natural
piety, though the mother, rather than the father, influenced their
minds and developed their characters. The father was a man of
strong will, but occasionally harsh and tyrannical in his dealings
with his family; (11) while the mother, with much strength of
understanding and ardent love of truth, was gentle, persuasive,
affectionate, and simple. She was the teacher and cheerful
companion of her children, who gradually became moulded by her
example.
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