you to begin at fourteen, seven years bring you to the age of twenty-one; a period at which it is quite early enough to assume the liberty of manhood. Nor, indeed, can those habits be formed with certainty, which are to continue during life in a shorter space.

"Seven years, however, it must be confessed, are a very considerable portion of life at any age, and particularly valuable in the vernal season, when the seeds of every amiable and useful quality are to be sown and cultivated. You will, therefore, be particularly careful to employ it in a constant application to useful pursuits.

"The knowledge of your particular business will claim, after your moral and religious duties, your first and longest attention. Be not afraid of incurring among your companions the appellation of a dull cit or a spiritless plodder. Such names are usually the poor consolations of those who envy the happiness which must attend the propriety of your conduct. Proceed, therefore, in the regular performance of your duties, animated by the approbation of your own heart, and of your friends and superintendants, and despising that ridicule which originates only in malice, though it has been sufficiently powerful to ruin many. I need not inform you, that writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, and all the particular mysteries, as they are called, of your particular occupation, will leave you little time for inaction. The less, indeed, the better. Vice and misery are almost the certain conso

quences of your not knowing how to employ your time. Great cities, where commerce is chiefly carried on, abound with temptations, and few are found more frequently in the haunts of debauchery and dissipation than clerks and apprentices.

"Since, however, it is impossible but that you should have some leisure, I very seriously recommend it to you to acquire a taste for good books; I say good books, for you may injure your mind, and ruin your fortune, by an indiscriminate and improper choice. The readers in your way of life seldom read any thing but novels, plays, and licentious productions of every species. Besides that these have a tendency to corrupt the morals of young men in general, they have usually an influence peculiarly hurtful on the mind of the young trader; for they almost invariably represent the essential virtues of a trader, such as honesty, sobriety, punctuality, and industry, as contemptible and ridiculous. The very name and character of a trader, in plays and novels, are low and vulgar. The object held out as a model for imitation is usually some dissipated rake, who, with every vice and unfortunate failing which tends to make himself miserable, and to break a parent's heart, is described as a fine fellow, worthy of universal love and admiration.

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Let me entreat you to summon resolution enough to avoid such reading till your judgment is mature, your passions regulated, and your principles formed. If you have been fortunate

enough to have acquired a little knowledge of the classics at your school, preserve and improve it. Read and reflect upon the histories of Greece and Rome, and your own country. There are books of morality in the English language as full of entertainment for a mind unvitiated as any novel.

"A taste for good books will have a happy influence on your temper, and will tend to secure your conduct, not only by filling up your time innocently, but by suggesting to your mind wise rules and useful maxims. Good books will teach you to know yourself and your situation, and to set a just value on those things which ignorant avarice and ambition pursue with restless avidity, and at the same time with little pure and solid enjoyment. They will enlarge your views, and give you a liberality of sentiment and manners. If you attend solely to the means of getting money, your mind will gradually become narrow. You will consider money as the only good. Your eyes and your heart will be shut to all those other objects of delight with which the God of nature has profusely furnished the residence of his favourite creature. This is an enlightened age; and the man of fortune, but of illiberal mind, will be pitied, if not despised and neglected. He will find few associates but among those who are as vulgar as himself, and whose riches, if they possess riches, cannot render them respectable.

"But moderation is necessary in that which is laudable; and while I recommend to you an

attention to letters, I must remind you that they are only to form your recreation, and not your business. Be contented with reading: beware of scribbling verses when you ought to be posting your accounts. A little applause bestowed on your rhymes may be your ruin. It may give your ambition a wrong object, and lead you astray, like the dancing vapour of a misty evening. Be cautious of raising your ideas above your situation. Dare to be what you really are; and, if you think your situation and character require to be elevated and adorned, elevate and adorn them yourself by exemplary behaviour. If you wish to become respectable, you will succeed in your wish, by raising the sphere in which you are placed, but not by showing that you think it too humble for a person of your exalted ideas and noble way of thinking.

"You must beware of entertaining too early the fatal affectation of shining as a fine gentleman and a man of pleasure. To support these characters, supposing them consistent with innocence, a fund of money is absolutely necessary. Probably it can be procured only by importuning and offending a parent, by incurring debt, or by fraudulent practices; each of which methods is almost a certain source of ruin and infamy. Add to this, that he who is always adorning his person, and frequenting theatres, assemblies, and public gardens, will be so overrun with folly and vanity, that no room will be left for the solid virtues of the sober citizen. His ambition will take a new turn. Before the

expiration of his apprenticeship, he will probably grow sick of his trade, get an ensigncy, if his father can afford to purchase one, and if not, turn strolling player, and, at last, instead of becoming an alderman, or a respectable private citizen, degenerate to an infamous swindler, or become at last a beggar.

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I consider the manner in which a Sunday is spent in a great city, by the young men who are trained to trade and merchandise, as a matter of the highest consequence to their happi

ness.

The master and mistress of the family are then usually at their country-house, or engaged in some rural excursion. There is no restraint, and no amusement at home. The apprentice or clerk is glad to make use of his liberty, and to fly from the solitude of a deserted house. Parties of pleasure are formed; improper and even vicious connexions made; and the poor young man often dates his greatest misfortunes from that day, the institution of which was designed to increase the virtue and happiness of mankind. Sunday affords a fine opportunity for indulging an inclination for reading; and I have no doubt, but that in a few hours spent in this decent and profitable manner, there would be more pleasure than in galloping about the country, or driving a curricle to some place of amusement.

"I have been thus particular in suggesting advice to you for the conduct of an apprenticeship, because good conduct during that danger ous period, is a very promising presage of future