but few or none their charity, especially if it be about money matters.

You shall see an old miser come forth with a set gravity, and so much severity against the distressed, to excuse his purse, that he will, ere he has done, put it out of all question that riches is righteousness with him. This," says he, "is the fruit of your prodigality, (as if, poor man, covetousness were no fault,) or, of your projects, or grasping after a great trade;" while he himself would have done the same thing, but that he had not the courage to venture so much ready money out of his own trusty hands, though it had been to have brought him back the Indies in return. But the proverb is just, "Vice should not correct sin."

They have a right to censure, that have a heart to help; the rest is cruelty, not justice.

BONDS OF CHARITY.

Lend not beyond thy ability, nor refuse to lend out of thy ability; especially when it will help others more than it can hurt thee.

If thy debtor be honest and capable, thou hast thy money again, if not with increase, with praise. If he prove insolvent, do not ruin him to get that which it will not ruin thee to lose: for thou art but a steward, and another is thy owner, master, and judge.

The more merciful acts thou dost, the more mercy thou wilt receive: and if with a charitable employment of thy temporal riches, thou gainest eternal treasure, thy purchase is infinite thou wilt have found the art of multiplying indeed.

FRUGALITY, OR BOUNTY.

Frugality is good, if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last bestowing them to the

benefit of others that need. The first without the last begins covetousness; the last without the first begins prodigality. Both together make an excellent temper. Happy the place where that is found.

Were it universal, we should be cured of two extremes, want and excess: and the one would supply the other, and so bring both nearer to a mean; the just degree of earthly happiness.

It is a reproach to religion and government, to suffer so much poverty and excess.

Were the superfluities of a nation valued, and made a perpetual tax for benevolence, there would be more alms houses than poor, schools than scholars, and enough to spare for goverment besides.

Hospitality is good, if the poorer sort are the subjects of our bounty; else too near a superfluity.

DISCIPLINE.

If thou wouldst be happy and easy in thy family, above all things observe discipline.

Every one in it should know their duty; and there should be a time and place for every thing; and, whatever else is done or omitted, be sure to begin and end with God.

INDUSTRY.

Love labor for if thou dost not want it for food, thou mayest for physic. It is wholesome for thy body, and good for thy mind. It prevents the fruits of idleness, which many times come of nothing to do, and lead too many to do what is worse than nothing.

A garden, an elaboratory, a workhouse, improvements, and breeding, are pleasant and profitable diversions to the idle and ingenious ; for here they miss ill company, and converse with nature and art; whose varieties are equally grateful and instructing, and preserve a good constitution of body and mind.

TEMPERANCE.

To this a spare diet contributes much. Eat therefore to live, and do not live to eat. That is like a man, but this below a beast.

Have wholesome, but not costly food: and be rather cleanly than dainty in ordering it.

The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume, but a good stomach excels them all; to which nothing contributes more than industry and temperance.

It is a cruel folly to offer up to ostentation so many lives of creatures, as make up the state of our treats; as it is a prodigal one to spend more in sauce than in meat.

The proverb says, "That enough is as good as a feast:" but it is certainly better, if superfluity be a fault, which never fails to be at festivals.

If thou rise with an appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.

Rarely drink but when thou art dry; nor then, between meals, if it can be avoided.