"'Women and wine, game and deceit,
Make the wealth small, and the want great.'

And farther, 'What maintains one vice would bring up two children.' You
may think, perhaps, that a little tea, or a little punch now and then,
diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little
entertainment now and then, can be no great matter; but remember, 'Many
a little makes a mickle.' Beware of little expenses. 'A small leak will
sink a great ship,' as Poor Richard says; and again, 'Who dainties love,
shall beggars prove;' and moreover, 'Fools make feasts, and wise men eat
them.' Here you are all got together to this sale of fineries and
knick-knacks. You call them goods, but, if you do not take care, they
will prove evils to some of you. You expect they will be sold cheap, and
perhaps they may, for less than they cost; but if you have no occasion
for them, they must be dear to you. Remember what Poor Richard says,
'Buy what thou hast no need of, and erelong thou shalt sell thy
necessaries.' And again, 'At a great pennyworth pause awhile;' he means,
that perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, and not real; or the
bargain, by straitening thee in thy business, may do thee more harm than
good. For in another place he says, 'Many have been ruined by buying
good pennyworths.' Again, 'It is foolish to lay out money in a purchase
of repentance;' and yet this folly is practiced every day at auctions,
for want of minding the almanac. Many a one, for the sake of finery on
the back, have gone with a hungry belly, and half starved their
families; 'Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets, put out the kitchen
fire,' as Poor Richard says. These are not the necessaries of life; they
can scarcely be called the conveniences; and yet, only because they look
pretty, how many want to have them? By these and other extravagances,
the greatest are reduced to poverty, and forced to borrow of those whom
they formerly despised, but who, through industry and frugality, have