in these simple words--hear and ponder on them; write them upon the
tablets of your memory; they are worthy to be inscribed in letters of gold
upon every door-post--"industry, prudence, and economy." Oh! they are
words of power to guide you to respectability and happiness. Attend, then,
to some of the laws which industry impose, while you have health and
strength. Let not the rising sun behold you sleeping or indolently lying
upon your beds. Rise ever with the morning light; and, till sun-set, give
not an hour to idleness. Say not human nature cannot endure it. It can--it
almost requires it. Sober, diligent, and moderate labor does not diminish
it, but on the contrary, greatly adds to the health, vigor, and duration
of the human frame. Thousands of the human race have died prematurely of
disease engendered by indolence and inactivity. Few, very few indeed,
have suffered by the too long continuance of bodily exertion. As you give
the day to labor, so devote the night to rest; for who that has drunk and
reveled all night at a tippling shop, or wandered about in search of
impious and stolen pleasures, has not by so doing not only committed a
most heinous and damning sin in the sight of Heaven, but rendered himself
wholly unfit for the proper discharge of the duties of the coming day. Nor
think that industry or true happiness do not go hand in hand; and to him
who is engaged in some useful avocation, time flies delightfully and
rapidly away. He does not, like the idle and indolent man, number the slow
hours with sighs--cursing both himself and them for the tardiness of their
flight. Ah, my friends, it is utterly impossible for him who wastes time
in idleness, ever to know anything of true happiness. Indolence, poverty,
wretchedness, are inseparable companions,--fly them, shun idleness, as
from eminent and inevitable destruction. In vain will you labor unless
prudence and economy preside over and direct all your exertions. Remember
at all times that money even in your own hands, is power; with it you may
direct as you will the actions of your pale, proud brethren. Seek after
and amass it then, by just and honorable means; and once in your hand