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your back is turned, however they may seem entertained with your conversation.

For common conversation, men of ordinary abilities will upon occasions do well enough. And you may always pick something out of any man's discourse, by which you may profit. For an intimate friend to improve by, you must search half a county over, and be glad if you can find him at last.

Do not give your time to every superficial acquaintance; it is bestowing what is to you of inestimable worth, upon one, who is not likely to be better for it.

If a person has behaved to you in an unaccountable manner, do not at once conclude him a bad man, unless you find his character given up by all who know him; nor then, unless the facts alleged against him be undoubtedly proved, and wholly inexcusable. But this is not advising you to trust a person, whose character you have any reason to suspect. Nothing can be more absurd than the common way of fixing people's characters. Such a one has disobliged me; therefore he is a villain. Such another has done me a kindness; therefore he is a saint.

Never contend about small matters with superiors, nor with inferiors. If you get the better of the first, you provoke their formidable resentment: if you engage with the latter you debase yourself.

If you act a part truly great, you may expect that men of mean spirits, who can not reach you, will endeavour, by detraction, to pull you down to their level. But posterity will do you justice; for the envy raised against you, will die with you.

Superficial people are more agreeable the first time you are in their company, than ever afterwards. Men of judgment improve every succeeding conversation: beware therefore of judging by one interview.

You will not anger a man so much by showing him that you hate him, as by expressing a contempt of him.

Most young women had rather have any of their good qualities slighted, than their beauty. Yet that is the most inconsiderable accomplishment of a woman of real merit. You will be always reckoned by the world nearly of the same character with those whose company you keep.

You will please so much the less, if you go into com

pany determined to shine. Let your conversation appear to rise out of thoughts suggested by the occasion, not strained, or premeditated: nature always pleases: affectation is always odious.

PART II.

OF PRUDENCE IN ACTIÓN.

SECTION I.

Of following Advice. Of Submission to Superiors.

PRUDENCE in action is the conducting of one's affairs in such a manner as is necessary and proper, all circumstances duly considered and balanced; and avoiding whatever may be likely to produce inconvenience with respect to secular concerns. Imprudence is seen as much in neglecting what ought to be done, and at the proper time for doing it, as in taking rash and inconsiderate steps.

There is not a more promising sign in a young person, than a readiness to hear the advice of those whose age and experience qualify them for judging maturely. The knowledge of the world, and of the arts of life, can only be attained by experience and action. Therefore if a young person, who, through obstinacy, rejects the advice of experienced people, succeeds in his designs, it is owing to some strange interposition of Providence, or concurrence of circumstances. For such a one, entering into life, wholly unacquainted with the difficulties and dangers of it, and resolutely bent against advice, runs the same hazard as a person, wholly ignorant of sailing, who should, against the judgment of experienced pilots, undertake to steer a ship through the most dangerous sea, in a tempest.

It seems at first view, a very odd turn in human nature, that young people are generally much more conceited of their own judgments, than those who are come to maturity. One would wonder how they should miss reflecting, that persons more advanced in age than themselves, have of course the advantage of so many years experience beyond themselves; and that, if all other things were equal,

the single circumstance of having seen more of the world, must necessarily enable them to judge better of it.

Life is a journey; and they only who have travelled a considerable way in it, are fit to direct those who are setting out.

Let me therefore advise my young readers, to pay the utmost deference to the advices or commands of those, who are their superiors in age and experience. Old people, it must be owned, will sometimes obtrude their advice in a manner not very engaging. Their infirmities, the usual attendants of age, together with their concern for the wrong steps they see their young relations and acquaintance taking, will sometimes occasion their treating them with what may be taken for ill-nature; whereas, it may be in reality their love for the persons of their young friends, and their zeal for their interests which warm them. Do not therefore attend to the manner of the advice; but only to the matter of it. It would be of very little consequence to you, if you was going towards a precipice in a dark night, whether you were warned of your danger by a rude clown, or by a polite gentleman, so you escaped it. In the same manner, if a remonstrance is made upon any part of one's conduct, in the roughest manner; the only thing to be considered, is, whether we can profit by it, and the rudeness of the person, who made it, should go for nothing; as one would swallow a medicine, not for its gratefulness to the taste, but for its effect on the constitution.

As to the submission a young man owes to his superiors, as parents, masters, &c. if it were not a duty, prudence alone would lead him to yield it readily and cheerfully in all cases that are lawful. For it is to be considered, that the consequences of refusing are incomparably worse than those of submission; the world being always ready to lay the blame upon the young person, in case of a rupture between them, and not upon the old; and nothing being more to the disadvantage of a young person's character, than the reproach of an obstinate or unsettled turn of mind. It would indeed be impossible to carry on the affairs of the world, if children, apprentices, servants, and other dependants, were to spend time in disputing the commands of their superiors; it being in many cases

hard to give an account of the fitness or unfitness of things prescribed, and in many altogether improper. Nor is it less commendable nor less graceful to obey cheerfully, than to direct prudently. No person is likely to command well, who has never learnt to obey.

It will be very imprudent in a young person to take any material step in life, without consulting the aged, and experienced especially, if possible, such as have had experience in his way of life. In one's choice of a friend, for such occasions, smoothness of speech or complaisance is not to be regarded. On the contrary, the most valuable friend is he, who joins to a thorough knowledge of men and things, matured by age and experience, an open, blunt, and honest behaviour; who will rather magnify, than palliate, the faults and imprudences of his friend, to his face, however he may defend him behind his back; and will not, on account of the trifling hazard of disoblig. ing, suffer him to take a wrong step, without making an open and honest remonstrance upon it.

There is one particular consideration, that makes asking the advice of one's friends prudent and judicious. It isThat, if it should so happen, as it often must, in spite of one's utmost precaution, that his affairs should take a wrong turn, he will not only have the less reason to reflect upon himself; but the mouths of others will generally be stopped as he may for the most part have his advisers at least, from mere self-conceit, to stand up for the prudence of his conduct, which was the consequence of their advice.

You will often find, that in the very proposing to your friend your difficulty, you yourself shall hit upon the means of getting over it, before he has time to give you his opinion upon it. And you will likewise find, that in advising with a friend, a word dropt by him shall furnish you a valuable hint for your conduct, which you shall wonder how you yourself came to miss.

It must be owned, however that there are cases in which no man can judge so well what steps should be taken as the person concerned; because he himself may know several important particulars in his own affairs, which would make it highly improper for him to follow the directions another person might give, who was not aware

of those circumstances. Whoever, therefore, gives up his judgment, and acts contrary to his own better knowledge, in compliance with the advice of his acquaintance, or with common custom, is guilty of a weakness, the consequences of which may prove fatal.

SECTION II.

Of Method, Application, and proper Times for Business. Of trusting to others.

THERE is nothing that contributes more to the ready and advantageous dispatch, as well as to the safety and success of business, than method and regularity. Let a man set down in his memorandum-book, every morning the several articles of business he has to do through the day; and beginning with the first person he is to call upon, or the first place he is to go to, finish that affair (if it is to be done at all) before he begins another; and so on to the rest. A man of business, who observes this method, will hardly ever find himself hurried or disconcerted by forgetfulness: And he who sets down all his transactions in writing, and keeps his accounts, and the whole state of his affairs, in a distinct and accurate order, so that he can at any time, by looking into his books, presently see in what condition his business is, and whether he is in a thriving or declining way; such a one, I say, deserves properly the character of a man of business, and has a fair prospect of carrying his schemes to an happy issue. But such exactness as this will by no means suit the man of pleasure, who has other things in his head.

The way to transact a great deal of business in a little time, and with great certainty, is to observe these rules. To speak to the point. To use no more words than are necessary fully to express your meaning; and to study beforehand, and set down in writing afterwards, a sketch of the transaction.

There is one piece of prudence, above all others, absolutely necessary to those who expect to raise themselves in the world by an employment of any kind; I mean a constant and unwearied application to the main pursuit. By means of indefatigable diligence, joined with frugali

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