experience that you can tell what will be the wants of your family. If
you spend all your money, you will find you have purchased many things
you do not want, and have no means left to get many things which you
do want. If you have enough, and more than enough, to get everything
suitable to your situation, do not think you must spend it all, merely
because you happen to have it. Begin humbly. As riches increase, it
is easy and pleasant to increase in hospitality and splendour; but
it is always painful and inconvenient to decrease. After all, these
things are viewed in their proper light by the truly judicious and
respectable. Neatness, tastefulness, and good sense, may be shown in
the management of a small household, and the arrangement of a little
furniture, as well as upon a larger scale; and these qualities are
always praised, and always treated with respect and attention. The
consideration which many purchase by living beyond their income, and
of course living upon others, is not worth the trouble it costs.
The glare there is about this false and wicked parade is deceptive;
it does not in fact procure a man valuable friends, or extensive
influence. More than that, it is wrong--morally wrong, so far as
the individual is concerned; and injurious beyond calculation to
the interests of our country. To what are the increasing beggary and
discouraged exertions of the present period owing? A multitude of
causes have no doubt tended to increase the evil; but the root of the
whole matter is the extravagance of all classes of people. We never
shall be prosperous till we make pride and vanity yield to the
dictates of honesty and prudence! We never shall be free from
embarrassment until we cease to be ashamed of industry and economy.
Let women do their share towards reformation--Let their fathers
and husbands see them happy without finery; and if their husbands
and fathers have (as is often the case) a foolish pride in seeing
them decorated, let them gently and gradually check this feeling,