earn, and of all that you expend. An orderly man will know beforehand
what he requires, and will be provided with the necessary means for
obtaining it. Thus his domestic budget will be balanced; and his
expenditure kept within his income.

John Wesley regularly adopted this course. Although he possessed a small
income, he always kept his eyes upon the state of his affairs. A year
before his death, he wrote with a trembling hand, in his Journal of
Expenses; "For more than eighty-six years I have kept my accounts
exactly. I do not care to continue to do so any longer, having the
conviction that I economize all that I obtain, and give all that I
can,--that is to say, all that I have."[1]

[Footnote 1: Southey's _Life of Wesley_, vol. ii., p. 560.]

Besides these methods of economy, the eye of the master or the mistress
is always necessary to see that nothing is lost, that everything is put
to its proper use and kept in its proper place, and that all things are
done decently and in order. It does no dishonour to even the highest
individuals to take a personal interest in their own affairs. And with
persons of moderate means, the necessity for the eye of the master
overlooking everything, is absolutely necessary for the proper conduct
of business.

It is difficult to fix the precise limits of economy. Bacon says that if
a man would live well within his income, he ought not to expend more
than one-half, and save the rest. This is perhaps too exacting; and
Bacon himself did not follow his own advice. What proportion of one's
income should be expended on rent? That depends upon circumstances. In
the country about one-tenth; in London about one-sixth. It is at all