charged the duties of it for seven years, proofs of which I now have by me, in writing, from the POST MASTER GENERAL and DEPUTY COMP

TROLLER GENERAL.

Here, then, ingenuous youth! is a living example, on record before you, of a man who, though strictly attentive to the duties of his office, was ruined by dissipation in his leisure hours, because he had been so unfortunate as to associate with extravagant young men, and had not formed for himself any solid plan of turning his spare time to advantage, by employing it on useful, instructive, or innocently amusing objects---such as that of mathematical learning, which, in the Essay annexed to this work, I have endeavoured to render inviting and attractive to you;---and be assured it is worth your attention, and will tend to furnish you with amusement far superior to cards or the bottle.

But while, as a MORALIST, I candidly own my errors thus publicly for your instruction, I must, at the same time, as a man who feels himself injured, also state, in my own behalf, that the labour of the pen I had to undergo, and the urgency of the business I was employed in for the three first years, very often kept me at work from four in the morning till ten and eleven at night; and that exertion, even a youth must be sensible could not have been gone through without an equal proportion of good living, and

some

جہ

sometimes a little excess and dissipation. It is but justice to myself to state, that I went into that office without owing fifty pounds in the world, and was obliged, in disgust, to leave it a thousand pounds in debt, and disappointed in repeated promises of promotion, after seven years faithful service, being actually refused the payment of three hundred pounds arrears for extra services, which was allowed by the then Post Master General to be a fair and just claim on my part, because I had deserved it; but that it could not be paid, as it would open a door to claims from others who had not deserved it so well as myself. ---This was all the consolation I had, and I still preserve vouchers of the fact.

You will perceive, then, from this instance in my own person, that even an attentive and diligent man in business may do away all the merit and advantage of his exertions by being careless of money and mispending his leisure hours in dissipation and amusement, when, by employing them more innocently, he might turn them to better account, and unbend himself equally as well too. Every amusement that costs money, and is carried to any degree of excess, or which is not attended with some benefit to the health, or instruction to the mind, I consider as dissipation.

But if the considerations already mentioned should unfortunately not have their proper weight G 3 with

with you, surely, that of laying up in youth fo the wants of OLD AGE must determine your resolution to avoid extravagance, and even amusements which will cost you money.

What, let me ask you, must be the situation of aged people, in these times of difficulty, dearness, snd scarcity, who neglected in youth to lay up for age?---The picture would be so distressing, that I shall forbear attempting to draw it;---but remember, that, though you are now young, age, comparatively speaking, will soon overtake you also, and, perhaps, not under more favourable circumstances than those of the present day, when a ten years' war has reduced us to the most distressing situation.

It is a vulgar saying, that we ought all to lay up something for a rainy day; to which I will add, that the pleasure of having a few guineas in the purse is far superior to all the indulgences of the table, the bottle, or the play-house. It gives a man a certain confidence of face and ease of mind, which you never can perceive the extravagant to possess. Shun, therefore, all temptations to spend unnecessarily; but carefully embrace every opportunity to acquire money honestly.

How mean and degrading is it to be obliged to borrow in youth; how miserable and wretched to want in age, and, perhaps, be compelled to take refuge in a workhouse, to be fed upon parochial charity!

Such

1

- Such, considerations as these ought to rouse your attention, and excite your utmost exertions in business.

SECT. 2.

Of Gaming, and Plays of Hazard in general. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

PROVERBS.

OF all the vices youth or age can give into, with the greatest chances against them of ruin and misery in this world, and perdition in the next, that of Gaming of any kind is the most certain to produce them; and if there be any vice more than another, that leads to the dread ful, abhorrent, and nature-revolting crime of SELF-MURDER, it is Gaming.

If ever the Pistol, the Razor, the Pond, or the Cord, have, from desperation, become the instru ments of refuge from life, and probably of eternal alienation from the blessed presence of God, the giver and preserver of life, I believe I may venture boldly to affirm, that gaming has furnished them with more employment than all the other vices put together; and surely, ingenuous youth! a stronger and more convincing proof of its hor rid tendency cannot well be adduced. ---Fly it, therefore, as a deadly poison, and avoid even the slightest approaches to or familiarity with it.

It is a curse that spreads the widest, and has stuck the closest to recent and the present times: G4

all

all ranks and degrees of people are infected with it; it is the livelihood of many, and so, more or less, countenanced by all, that it is become a breach of politeness to decline it, and esteemed downright bad breeding to expose it; the Sabbath is even polluted with its practice in the highest circles.

A

I could name to you fifty instances of persons, of no small celebrity and distinction, who, within these few years, have fallen unlamented victims to its fatal effects; but it is not necessary to enter so minutely into the business: your own reading, hearsay, and observation, will soon sufficiently convince you of the truth of my assertion. Wherever you are, therefore, if cards are called for, let that be the signal for you to take your leave; or if you cannot decently do that, to take up a newspaper or a book; nor let the proposal of a trifling stake be a bait to induce you to sit down adventurers heat themselves by play, as cowards do by wine; and he that began timorously, may, by degrees, surpass the whole party in rashness and extravagance. Besides, as avarice is one of our strongest passions, so nothing flatters or rouzes it more than play. Good success has an almost irresistible charm, and bad luck prompts us to put all to the hazard, to recover our losses: either way, nothing is more infatuating or destructive.

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