But I have been lately informed that thefe good natured and compaffionate people have for fome time found it neceffary to alter their ftory. "No more fhall want thy weary hand constrain, "Be wife, and ufe the lucky hour of fate. Rowe's Lucan. It seems that at laft they have difcovered the fecret fprings from whence I drew my wealth; however, they do not quite agree in their accounts, for although fome can tell you the very number of my fortunate lottery ticket, others are as pofitive that I found bank-notes in an old book, to the amount of many thousand pounds, and if they please, can even tell you the title of the very fortunate old book that contained this treasure. But fhall receive it from me, which you you will deem authority to the full as unexceptionable, I affure you then upon my honour, that I found the whole of what I am poffeffed ,of, in-SMALL PROFITS, bound by INDUSTRY, and clafped by OECONOMY. "Gilt toils for gain at honour's vaft expence, "The neceffary confequence of right." Earl Nugent to Lord Cornbury. you Read this, ye covetous wretches, in all trades, who when you get a good customer are for making the most of him! But if you have neither honour nor honefty, you should at least poffefs a little common fenfe. Reflect on the many customers that your over-charges have already driven from your shops! do think that you can find customers enough fo deficient in penetration as not to discover your characters ? no fuch thing. Your exorbitant charges are a general fubject of conversation and diflike: you cannot with confidence look your own customers in the face, as you are conscious of your meannefs and impofition, and your fordid difpofition is evidently the reason, that fome gentlemen are led to look with contempt and difdain on tradesmen. But when men in trade are men of honour, they will in general be treated as fuch; and were it otherwise, "One "One felf-approving hour whole years outweighs, "And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels, POPE. "Self efteem is one of the first ingredients ' of man's happiness," and I pity from my foul many poor wretches which I obferve bartering away their conftitutions, and what few liberal fentiments they may poffefs; rifing early and fitting up late, exerting all the powers of the body and mind, to get what they call a competency, no matter by what means this is effected. "Silver to gold, we own, fhould yield the prize; My friends get money; get a large estate, "This maxim echoes ftill from street to ftreet, "While young and old the pleafing strains repeat. FRANCIS'S Horace. Thousands actually deftroy themselves in accomplishing their grand defign: others, live to obtain the long-wifhed for country retreat. But, alas! the promised happiness 1 is as far from them as ever, often farther. The bufy bustling fcene of business being over, a vacuity in the mind takes place, fpleen and vapours fucceed, which encrease bodily infirmities, death ftares them in the face. The mean dirty ways by which much of their wealth has been obtained make retrospect reflections intolerable. Philofophy ftands aloof, nor ever deigns to visit the fordid foul. Gardens and pleasure grounds become dreary deferts; the miferable poffeffors linger out a wretched existence, or put a period to it with a halter or pistol. Sated, loathing, hopeless here of blifs, "Some plunge to feek it into death's abyfs." Lord Nugent. "Were this not common would it not be strange? I cannot omit to quote the following fine lines from Mr. Soame Jenyns, as they naturally occur to my recollection. "Ufelefs in bufinefs, yet unfit for ease, "Nor skill'd to mend mankind, nor form'd to please. "To fix reflection, dreads the vacant hour; "Solitude (fays Cowley) can be well fitted and fet aright, but upon very few perfons. They have knowledge enough of the world to see the follies of it; and virtue enough to defpife all vanity." The profits of my bufinefs the prefent -year 1791, will amount to FOUR THOUSAND 'POUNDS *. What it will increase to I know not; but if my health will permit me to carry it on a few years longer, there is very great probability, confidering the rapid increase which each fucceeding year has produced, that the profits will be double what they now are; for I here pledge my reputation as a tradesman, never to deviate from my old plan of giving as much for libraries as it is poffible for a tradesman to give, and felling them and new publications alfo, for the same 'SMALL PROFITS that have been attended with fuch astonishing fuccefs for fome years past. And I hope that my affiftants will also perfevere in that attentive obliging mode of Since this was wrote, my bufinefs is enlarged, in 1792, my profits were about 5000l. conduct |