Atandeth in length of time, nor that is meafured by number of years; but wifdom is the grey hair unto man, and unSpotted life is old age.

Wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being preffed with confcience, always forecafteth evil things; for fear is nothing elfe but a betraying of the fuccours which reafon offereth.

A wife man will fear in every thing. He that contemneth fmall things, fhall fall by little and little.

A rich man beginning to fall, is held up of his friends; but a poor man being down, is thrust away by his friends: when a rich man is fallen, he hath many helpers; he fpeaketh things not to be fpoken, and yet men juftify him: the poor man flipt, and they rebuked him; he fpoke wifely, and could have no place. When a rich man fpeaketh, every man holdeth his tongue, and, look, what he faith they extol it to the clouds; butif a poor man fpeaks, they fay, What fellow is this?

Many have fallen by the edge of the fword, but not fo many as have fallen by the tongue. Well is he that is de. fended from it, and hath not paffed through the venom thereof; who hath not drawn the yoke thereof, nor been bound in her bonds; for the yoke thereof is a yoke of iron, and the bands there of are bands of brafs; the death thereof is an evil death.

My fon, blemish not thy good deeds, neither ufe uncomfortable words, when thou givet any thing. Shall not the dew affuage the heat? fo is a word better than a gift. Lo, is not a word better than a gift? but both are with a gra

cious man.

Blame not, before thou haft examined the truth; understand firft, and then rebuke.

If thou wouldeft get a friend, prove him firit, and be not hafty to credit him; for fome men are friends for their own occafions, and will not abide in the day of thy trouble.

Forfake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou fhalt drink it with pleasure.

A friend cannot be known in profpe

rity; and an enemy cannot be hidden in adverfity.

Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not done it; and if he have, that he do it no more. Admonish thy friend; it may be he hath not faid it; or if he have, that he speak it not again. Admonith a friend; for many times it is a flander; and believe not every tale. There is one that flippeth in his speech, but not from his heart; and who is he that hath not offended with his tongue?

Whofo difcovereth fecrets lofeth his credit, and shall never find a friend to his mind.

Honour thy father with thy whole heart, and forget not the forrows of thy mother; how canft thou recompenfe them the things that they have done for thee?

There is nothing fo much worth as a mind well inftructed.

The lips of talkers will be telling fuch things as pertain not unto them; but the words of fuch as have underftanding are weighed in the balance. The heart of fools is in their mouth, but the tongue of the wife is in their heart.

To labour, and to be content with that a man hath, is a sweet life.

Be at peace with many; nevertheless, have but one counsellor of a thousand. Be not confident in a plain way. Let reafon go before every enterprize, and counfel before every action.

The latter part of a wife man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and falfe opinions he had contracted in the former.

Cenfure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.

Very few men, properly fpeaking, live at prefent, but are providing to live

Some people will never learn any thing, for this reason, because they understand every thing too foon.

There is nothing wanting, to make all rational and difinterested people in the world of one religion, but that they fhould talk together every day.

Men are grateful, in the fame degree that they are refentful.

Young men are fubtle arguers; the cloak of honour covers all their faults, as that of paffion all their follies.

Economy is no difgrace; it is better living on a little, than outliving a great deal.

Next to the fatisfaction I receive in the profperity of an honeft man, I am beft pleased with the confufion of a rafcal.

What is often termed fhynefs, is nothing more than refined fenfe, and an indifference to common observations.

The higher character a perfon fupports, the more he fhould regard his minuteft actions.

Every perfon infenfibly fixes upon fome degree of refinement in his dif courfe, fome measure of thought which he thinks worth exhibiting. It is wife to fix this pretty high, although it occafions one to talk the lefs.

To endeavour all one's days to fortify our minds with learning and philofophy," is to spend fo much in armour, that one has nothing left to defend.

Deference often fhrinks and withers as much upon the approach of intimacy, as the fenfitive plant does upon the touch of one's finger.

Men are fometimes accufed of pride, merely because their accufers would be proud themselves if they were in their places.

People frequently ufe this expreffion, I am inclined to think fo and fo, not confidering that they are then speaking the moft literal of all truths.

Modefty makes large amends for the pain it gives the perfons who labour under it, by the prejudice it affords every worthy perfon in their favour.

The difference there is betwixt honour and honefty feems to be chiefly in the motive. The honeft man does that from duty, which the man of honour does for the fake of character.

A lyar begins with making falfehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itfelf appear like falfehood.

Virtue fhould be confidered as a part of tafte; and we fhould as much avoid deceit, or finifter meanings in difcourfe, as we would puns, bad language, or falfe grammar.

Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.

He that lies in bed all a fummer's morning, lofes the chief pleasure of the day he that gives up his youth to indolence, undergoes a lofs of the fame kind.

Shining characters are not always the moft agreeable ones; the mild radiance of an emerald is by no means less pleafing than the glare of the ruby.

To be at once a rake, and to glory in the character, difcovers at the fame time a bad difpofition and a bad taste.

How is it poffible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not fo much as take warning?

Although men are accufed for not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps as few know their own ftrength. It is in men as in foils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.

Fine fenfe, and exalted fenfe, are not half fo valuable as common fenfe. There are forty men of wit for one man of fenfe; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a lofs for want of ready change.

Learning is like mercury, one of the moft powerful and excellent things in the world in skilful hands; in unskilful, most mifchievous.

A man fhould never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong; which is but faying, in other words, that he is wifer to-day than he was yesterday.

Wherever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generofity if he were a rich man.

Flowers of rhetoric in fermons or ferious difcourfes, are like the blue and red flowers in corn, pleafing to those who come only for amufement, but prejudicial to him who would reap the profit.

It often happens that thofe are the beft

people,

people, whofe characters have been moft injured by flanderers: as we ufually find that to be the fweeteft fruit which the birds have been pecking at.

The eye of a critic is often like a microscope, made fo very fine and nice, that it discovers the atoms, grains, and minuteft articles, without ever comprehending the whole, comparing the parts, or feeing all at once the harmony.

Men's zeal for religion is much of the fame kind as that which they fhew for a foot-ball; whenever it is contefted for, every one is ready to venture their lives and limbs in the difpute; but when that is once at an end, it is no more thought on, but fleeps in oblivion, buried in rubbish, which no one thinks it worth his pains to rake into, much lefs to

remove.

Honour is but a fictious kind of honefty; a mean but a neceffary substitute for it, in focieties who have none; it is a fort of paper-credit, with which men are obliged to trade who are deficient in the fterling cash of true morality and religion.

Perfons of great delicacy fhould know the certainty of the following truthThere are abundance of cafes which occafion fufpence, in which, whatever they determine, they will repent of their determination; and this through a propenfity of human nature to fancy happinefs in thofe fchemes which it does not purfue.

The chief advantage that ancient writers can boaft over modern ones, feems owing to fimplicity. Every noble truth and fentiment was expreffed by the former in a natural manner, in word and phrafe fimple, perfpicuous, and incapable of improvement. What then remained for later writers, but affectation, witticifm, and conceit?

What a piece of work is man! how noble in reafon! how infinite in faculties in form and moving, how exprefs and admirable! in action, how like an angel in apprehenfion, how like a God!

If to do were as eafy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes palaces. He is a good divine that follows his own inftructions; I can easier

teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow my own teaching.

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would defpair, if they were not cherished by our virtues.

The fenfe of death is moft in apprehenfion; and the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal fufferance feels a pang as great, As when a giant dies.

$157. The Way to Wealth, as clearly fhewn in the Preface of an old Pennyl vanian Almanack, intitled, "Poor Richard improved." Written by Dr. Benjamin Franklin.

Courteous Reader,

I have heard, that nothing gives an author fo great pleasure, as to find his works refpectfully quoted by others. Judge, then, how much I must have been gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you. I ftopped my horse, lately, where a great number of people were collected at an auction of merchants goods. The hour of the fale not being come, they were converfing on the badnefs of the times; and one of the company called to a plain, clean old man, with white locks, Pray, father Abraham, what think you of the times? Will not thofe heavy taxes quite ruin the country? how fhall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advife us to?'-Father Abraham stood up, and replied, If you would have my advice, I will give it you in fhort; "for a word to the wife is enough," as Poor Richard fays.' They joined in defiring him to fpeak his mind, and gathering round him, he proceeded as follows:

Friends,'

Friends,' fays he, the taxes are, indeed, very heavy; and, if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily difcharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to fome of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from thefe taxes the commiffioners cannot eafe or deliver us, by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken to good advice, and fome thing may be done for us; "God helps them that help themselves," as Poor Richard fays.

་

I. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one. tenth part of their time, to be employed in its fervice: but idleness taxes many of us much more; floth, by bringing on difeafes, abfolutely fhortens life. "Sloth, like ruft, confumes fafter than labour wears, while the ufed key is always bright," as Poor Richard fays."But doft thou love life, then do not fquander time, for that is the ftuff life is made of," as Poor Richard fays.-How much more than is neceffary do we fpend in fleep forgetting that "The fleeping fox catches no poultry, and that there will be fleeping enough in the grave," as Poor Richard fays.

"If time be of all things the most precious, wafting time muft be," as Poor Richard fays, "the greatest prodigality;" fince, as he elfewhere tells us, "Loft time is never found again; and what we call time enough always proves little enough:" Let us then up and be doing, and doing to the purpofe fo by diligence fhall we do more with lefs perplexity. "Sloth makes all things difficult, but induftry all easy ; and, he that rifeth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his bufinefs at night; while lazinefs travels fo flowly, that poverty foon overtakes him. Drive thy bufinefs, let not that drive thee; and early to bed, and early to

ing parapraph of this addrefs, Poor Richard (Saun ders) and father Abraham have proved, in Ame rica, that they are no common preachers.-And fhall we, brother Englishman, refute good fenfe and faving knowledge, because it comes from the other fide of the water?

rife, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wife," as Poor Richard fays.

So what fignifies wishing and hoping for better times? We may make thefe times better, if we be flirourselves. "Induftry need not with, and he that lives upon hope will die faiting. There are no gains without pains; then help hands, for I have no lands," or, if I have, they are fmartly taxed. "He that hath a trade, hath an eftate; and he that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and honour," as Poor Richard fays; but then the trade must be worked at, and the calling well followed, or neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are induftrious we fhall never starve; for,

*

at the working man's houfe hunger looks in, but dares not enter." Nor will the bailiff or the conftable enter, for

Industry pays debts, while despair encreafeth them." What though you have found no treasure, nor has any rich relation left you a legacy, "Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to induftry. Then plow deep, while fluggards fleep, and you fhall have corn to fell and to keep." Work while it is called to-day, for you know not how much you may be hindered to-morrow. One to-day is worth two to-morrows," as Poor Richard fays; and farther, "Never leave that till to-morrow, which you can do today."-If you were a fervant, would you not be ashamed that a good mafter fhould catch you idle? Are you then your own mafter? be afhamed to catch yourfelf idle, when there is fo much to be done for yourfelf, your family, your country, and your king. Handle your tools without mittens: remember, that

The cat in gloves catches no mice," as Poor Richard fays. It is true, there is much to be done, and, perhaps, you are weak-handed; but stick to it steadily, and you will fee great effects; for "Conftant dropping wears away ftones: and by diligence and patience the mouse ate in two the cable; and little ftrokes fell great oaks."

Methinks I hear fome of you fay, "Mufta man afford himself no leifure?" I will tell thee, my friend, what Poor Richard fays; Employ thy time well,

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if thou meanest to gain leifure; and, Since thou art not fure of a minute, throw not away an hour." Leifure is time for doing fomething useful; this leifure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; for, "A life of leifure and a life of laziness are two things. Many, without labour, would live by their wits only, but they break for want of stock;" whereas induftrygives comfort, and plenty, and respect. "Fly pleasures, and they will follow you. The diligent fpinner has a large fhift; and now I have a fheep and a cow, every body bids me good-morrow."

II. But with our industry we must likewife be steady, fettled, and careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own eyes, and not truft too much to others; for, as Poor Richard says,

"I never faw an oft-removed tree,

Nor yet an oft-removed family,

That throve fo well as thofe that fettled be."

And again, "Three removes is as bad as a fire" and again, "Keep thy fhop, and thy fhop will keep thee:" and again, "If you would have your bufi

"

nefs done, go; if not, fend,' And

again,

"He that by the plough would thrive, Himself muft either hold or drive."

• And again, "The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands:" and again, "Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge:" and again, "Not to overfee workmen, is to leave them your purfe open." Trufting too much to others care is the ruin of many; for," In the affairs of this world, men are faved, not by faith, but by the want of it:" buta man's own care is profitable; for, "If you would have a faithful fervant, and one that you like, ferve yourself. A little neglect may breed great mifchief; for want of a nail the fhoe was loft; for want of a fhoe the horfe was loft; and for want of a horse the rider was loft," being overtaken and flain by the enemy; all for want of a lit tle care about a horfe-fhoe nail.

III. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own bufinefs; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our industry

more certainly fuccefsful. A man may, if he knows not how to fave as he gets,

keep his nofe all his life to the grindftone, and die not worth a groat at laft. A fat kitchen makes a lean will;" and "Many eftates are spent in the getting, Since women for tea forfook fpinning and knitting,

And men for punch forfook hewing and fplitting."

"If you would be wealthy, think of faving, as well as of getting. The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than her in

comes.

Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not then have fo much caufe to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable families;

for

"Women and wine, game and deceit,

Make the wealth fmall, and the want

great."

And farther, "What maintains one vice, would bring up-two children." You may think, perhaps, that a little tea, or a little punch now and then, diet a little more coftly, cloaths a little finer, and a little entertainment now and then, can be no great matter; but remember, "Many a little makes a mickle." Beware of little expences; "A fmall leak will fink a great ship," as Poor Richard fays; and again, "Who dainties love, fhall beggars prove;" and moreover, "Fools make feasts, and wife men eat them." Here you are all got together to this fale of fineries and nicknacks. You call them goods; but, if you do not take care, they will prove evils to fome of you, You expect they will be fold cheap, and, perhaps, they may for lefs than they coft; but, if you have no occafion for them, they must be dear to you. Remember what Poor Richard fays, "Buy what thou haft no need of, and ere long thou shalt fell thy neceffaries." And again, “At a great pennyworth paufe a while:" he means, that perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, and not real; or the bargain, by ftraitening thee in thy bufinefs, may do thee more harm than good. For in another place he fays, " Many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths." Again,

3L 4

It is