Nor is this advice for the service of the master, but of the apprentice;
for if the apprentice neglects this advice, if he omits to qualify
himself for business as above, if he neither will acquaint himself with
the customers, nor the books, nor with the buying part, nor gain
judgment in the wares he is to deal in, the loss is his own, not his
master's--and, indeed, he may be said to have served not himself, but
his master--and both his money and his seven years are all thrown away.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] [Individuals dealt with.]

[7] [It would be hard to doubt that Defore was sincere in this pleading
of the rights of the apprentice; but its morality is certainly far from
clear. The master may have gained customers with difficulty, by the
exercise of much ingenuity, patience, and industry, or through some
peculiar merit of his own. Indeed, it is always to be presumed that a
tradesman's customers are attached to him from some of these causes. Of
course, it would be hard if his apprentices, instead of collecting
customers for themselves by the same means, seduced away those of his
master. The true and direct object of an apprenticeship is to acquire a
trade, not to acquire customers.]




CHAPTER II

THE TRADESMAN'S WRITING LETTERS