unhinging your mind from that business, which must be your future support.

Timely consider, I exhort you, to what these courses may lead you; and what affliction you will give to your friends by a continuance in them. Lay together the substance of a whole evening's conversation with frothy companions; and reflect if all the knowledge you derive from it is worth breaking your rest for, exclusive of the dangers you run with respect to your character and constitution. I am confident that one hour spent in the conversation of a sober, well-disposed family (like your master's) would give you a more lasting and rational satisfaction. At the same time, your present conduct is such, as I am certain you would not allow in a servant of your own; for it is commonly seen, that those who are faulty themselves, are, of all men, the least inclined to be merciful to the failings of others; so much do evil courses erase every humane sensation from the heart.

You are now at an age when you should be improving your faculties, instead of merely diverting them; and laying in such a fund of knowledge as, when ripened by experience, might make you a worthy member of society. By preferring, in your leisure hours, the silent, yet instructive conversation of books, and applying yourself assiduously to business in the hours designed for it, you would, in time, make yourself an agreeable and rational companion, and a respectable tradesman ; but, as you are now employing the precious hours of youth, you will, in a few years, be despised and shunned by all good men, and be fit only for the profligate company of gamblers and sharpers.

As nothing but my affection for you could possibly influence me to these expostulations, I hope for a proper effect from them, if you would bẹ thought well of by, or expect any favor from

1

Your loving Father.

From

From a Tradesman to his Correspondent, requesting Payment of a Sum of Money.

SIR,

OWING to a very unexpected demand that has been made on me for money, which I hoped to have kept longer in trade, I am compelled to apply for the balance of the accompt between us, or as much of it as you can conveniently spare, for I wish not to distress you. When I have an opportunity to inform of the nature of this sudden demand, and the necessity there is of my discharging it, I am certain you will readily excuse the freedom I now take with you: and, as it is an affair of great consequence to my family, I know the friendship you bear me will induce you to serve me to the utmost of your power.

SIR,

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient Servant.

The Answer.

IT gives me singular satisfaction to be able to serve a man I so much esteem, by immediately answering your demand. The balance of the ac compt is two hundred pounds; for which I have procured a bank note, and, for security, divided it; one half I have sent by this day's post, and tomorrow I will send you the other.

I cannot but rejoice, in some measure, at the urgency of your present necessity; as it gives me an opportunity of shewing my friendship for you in a manner more effectual than it is possible by words, I hope the supply I have herewith sent you will prove so seasonable as to enable you to surmount the present difficulty; and that no se

rious obstacle will ever interrupt your road to happiness;

And am, your's sincerely.

From a Lady to a Maid Servant who had left her, containing an useful Lesson for Persons in that State of Life.

DEAR BETTY,

I RECEIVED your letter, and, though I have failed to answer it before, my prayers and best wishes have constantly attended you. I trust you have the good fortune to please where you are, as I hear nothing to the contrary. If you are so happy as to be in favor with the family you serve, I make no question of your continuing in it by a constant endeavour to deserve it. I told you truly above, that I daily remember you in my prayers; and I will not suppose that you forget that important duty yourself. Though you sleep with the other maid, and have no closet or private place to retire to, I entreat you to let no pretence whatever prevail with you to omit an indispensible duty; nor a false notion of modesty prompt you to neglect an action that it is your greatest glory to perform. I hope your fellow servant thinks as she ought on this occasion; if not, endeavour to gain her over by your example, but beware of being perverted by her's. To commit ourselves in a morning to the hazard of the day, without addressing the throne of grace, is such a degree of impiety and foolhardiness as is shocking but to think of: and surely it is ingratitude of the blackest die to close our eyes at night without returning unfeigned thanks for the dangers we have escaped; those eyes, for all we know, inay never be unclosed again in this

world..

world. I was going to offer some advice of another kind; but I recollect, that-your duty to your Creator includes every thing. Whatever you are about doing, think always on what is due to the dignity of your nature. Consider, that though Providence has placed you in the humble rank of a servant, your immortal soul is of equal value with that of an empress. At a first glance this counsel may appear to encourage pride; but, if duly attended to, it will prove the most effectual means to extinguish it. A proper consideration of the several degrees of men, in the order in which God has placed them with respect to this life, will teach. you to condescend to your superiors without meanness, and to distinguish yourself from those below you without arrogance; it will hinder adversity from oppressing you; and, if prosperity be your lot (as I heartily wish it may) it will find you worthy of it,-it will make you equal to good for tune, and superior to ill. Mr; S. joins his best respects with mine to your master and mistress. I desire that, whenever you are inclined to write to me, you would chuse half an hour, when you can best be spared, and ask leave; this will save you the trouble of equivocating, when it is demanded what has been your employment, and prevent your giving an indifferent action the appearance of a guilty one for be sure never to forget, that your time is not your own, but is entirely due to those you serve; and that you cannot justly employ any part of it to your own use without leave. Pray, good Betty, think of this; and be not above being taught by any one, whatever is worth the trouble of learning: no matter who it is that teaches, provided the instructions are good. Adieu, and do me the justice to believe that this letter is dictated by a heart full of genuine wishes for your welfare, from one who will always regard

every piece of happiness that befals you, as an additional one to herself.

For I am,

Your sincere friend.

To a young Tradesman, advising Method in Business, as well as diligence.

DEAR NEPHEW,

THE affection I have always borne you, as well -for your own sake as for your late parents', makes me give you the trouble of these lines, which I hope you will receive as kindly as I intend them. I have lately called on you several times; and have, as often, found you in an extraordinary hurry. This, I know, cannot sometimes be avoided; but need not always be the case, if your time was disposed in regular and proper proportions to your business. I have frequently had reason to believe, that more than half the flutter which appears among tradesmen in general, is rather the effect of indolence or negligence than industry, however desirous they may be to have it thought otherwise; and I will give you one instance in a neighbour of mine, in confirmation of this opinion.

This gentleman carried on, for some years, a profitable business; but, indulging himself in a tavern society or club, (which the promotion of business gave the first pretence for) it soon became habitual to him, to look on those engagements as the natural consequences of the approach of night; and he drove on his business with precipitation in the day, that he might be at leisure in the evening to be at the tavern with the earliest. He seldom kept very late hours, it is true; though he never came home soon. The night being gone, the first

part