look forward beyond the time of their servitude, and think of setting up
and being for themselves, I think then is the time to put them upon
useful preparations for the work, and to instruct them in such things as
may qualify them best to enter upon the world, and act for themselves
when they are so entered.

The first thing a youth in the latter part of his time is to do, is to
endeavour to gain a good judgment in the wares of all kinds that he is
likely to deal in--as, for example, if a draper, the quality of cloths;
if a stationer, the quality of papers; if a grocer, the quality of
sugars, teas, &c.; and so on with all other trades. During the first
years of a young man's time, he of course learns to weigh and measure
either liquids or solids, to pack up and make bales, trusses, packages,
&c., and to do the coarser and laborious part of business; but all that
gives him little knowledge in the species and quality of the goods, much
less a nice judgment in their value and sorts, which however is one of
the principal things that belong to trade.

It is supposed that, by this time, if his master is a man of
considerable business, his man is become the eldest apprentice, and is
taken from the counter, and from sweeping the warehouse, into the
counting-house, where he, among other things, sees the bills of parcels
of goods bought, and thereby knows what every thing costs at first hand,
what gain is made of them, and if a miscarriage happens, he knows what
loss too; by which he is led of course to look into the goodness of the
goods, and see the reason of things: if the goods are not to
expectation, and consequently do not answer the price, he sees the
reason of that loss, and he looks into the goods, and sees where and how
far they are deficient, and in what; this, if he be careful to make his
observations, brings him naturally to have a good judgment in the goods.