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prove the truth of Solomon's assertion, if he would have given a million of money for it, he could not have bought it. If, then, a rich usurer could find it worth 10,000l., how much more invaluable must it be to a youth beginning the world, and who has nothing, perhaps, but his character to depend upon for his success in business!

I earnestly intreat you, therefore, ingenuous youth! now, at your entrance upon the arduous journey of life, to remember, that your character, if once sullied, can never be restored to its original purity; or, if once totally lost, can never be regained.

If

you

can seriously impress this certain truth upon your mind, it will restrain you from doing wrong when other motives of prevention are probably of no avail.

We are informed in scripture, and from the experience of Solomon, that the righteous are bold as the lion; but that the wicked fleeth when no man pursueth.

This is an excellent picture of the two opposite characters; the good conduct of the former giving him that courage which the consciousness of his integrity can alone impart; and the latter, in wardly sensible of his guilt, flying from the ima ginary pursuer, which his conscience only has sent in quest of him, the idea of which will haunt him by day and by night.

The

- The advantages of a good character are these: credit in business---confidence from men---esteem and respect in society---happiness at home---and peace within your own mind. If misfortunes overtake you, if sickness and age weigh you down, the sense of your integrity will comfort, you, and you will meet with friends. Who ever saw the righteous man forsaken, or his seed beg-, ging their bread?

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The Psalmist assures us, that, though he had been young, and was then old, he had never witnessed that to be the case; but, though times and circumstances are a little altered since his days, it is yet gratifying to perceive that, in general, his observation still holds good.

The effects of a bad character are these: want of credit in business---distrust from men---dis grace and contempt from society---suspicion and misery at home---and wretchedness of mind within. If misfortunes, pain, sickness, and old age, overtake you, you live unassisted and unsup ported, and die unlamented; than which, can there be any thing more shocking in prospect, or more agonizing in its accomplishment, to a feeling and ingenuous mind? Study, therefore, with all your might, to avoid this dreadful evil--ponder well the paths of your feet, and let all your endeavours be strenuously exerted, first to gain, and then to preserve, a good name and an

unsul:

unsullied character; for the characters and ac tions of men not only live with them, but after them; are written in the memories of their acquaintances and cotemporaries, and engraved, as it were, upon tablets of brass, are even handed down to the latest posterity.

Thus it is that we are acquainted with the wickedness of a NERO, and the virtues of a CATO, many hundred years after they have ceased to live. If ever, therefore, the page of history should have occasion to record the actions of your life, I hope, young as you are, you cannot be insensi ble to the species of stamp that will be affixed by your cotemporaries to them; or, if it should be your fate to live and die in the sphere of private life, you cannot be indifferent to what your friends and acquaintances will say and think of you after you are laid in the cold grave, where all things are forgotten; nor to what your trembling mind must feel in the hour of your depar

ture.

SECT. 2.

Of avoiding Debt.

Owe no man any thing but love.

ST. PAUL.

OF the many foundations laid by youth for misery, perplexity of mind, poverty, distress, and

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contempt in after-life, that of getting into debt is the most frequent. Could a youth but foresee the evil consequences of once exceeding the bounds of his income a single guinea, he would tremble at the thought, and learn the value of economy.

Besides the care and anxiety of mind attending it, the man to whom you owe money, without being able to pay it when demanded, can arrest your person, drag you by bailiffs to a spunginghouse, where every imposition is practised, throw, you into a prison, and keep you there for years; a striking instance of which has just been laid before the public in the case of a wine merchant of Bristol, who has been languishing in the King's Bench prison for NINETEEN years, without baying been able to take the advantage of the many insolvent acts which have been passed by the legislature during that period.

Could you but fully witness the impositions of a spunging-house, the horrors of a loathsome stinking gaol! Could you but feel the loss of liberty with that acute anguish which prisoners do! Could you but strongly enough picture to your feeling mind the disagreeable, profligate, and coarse companions you will meet with there, it would shock your refined fancy, harrow up your young soul, and chill the current of your blood! In short, could you but fully enough conceive the poverty, distress, vice, noise, and ennui, which

reign there! Could you but experience the insults. from gaolers, the want of tranquility and comforts to which prisoners for debt are subject, as well as the bad consequences to their health from cold damp stone floors and walls; miserable beds, crowded close; an unwholesome confined air, almost approaching to pestilential; and the extreme difficulty of procuring the common necessaries of life, without absolutely begging for them at the gates of your prison, you would immediately and décidedly resolve never to put it in the power of any man to confine you there. In vain would you long and sigh after liberty; in vain would you wish to revisit your friends and your home, to enjoy the sweet air of the fields, the enlivening prospects of the country, or the pleasures of the town---in vain would you wish to escape from riot, noise, blasphemy, and insult!

But this is not all; your creditor can every where call you dishonest, without legal redress on your part, and thus ruin your reputation for ever: in short, you are at his mercy, and, in a manner, his slave till your debt is discharged; and that was absolutely the law among some of the ancient

nations.

Another circumstance that must surely deter you from getting into debt is this; that, by how much you are indebted to others, by so much will your credit and good name be diminished in

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