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PART II.

Of PRUDENCE in ACTION.

SECT. I.

Of following Advice. Of Submiffion to Superiors.

PRO

RUDENCE in action is the conducting of one's affairs in fuch a manner as is neceflary and proper, all circumftances duly confidered and balanced; and avoiding whatever may be likely to produce inconvenience with respect to fecular concerns. Imprudence is feen as much in neglecting what ought to be done, and at the proper time for doing it, as in taking rash and inconfiderate steps.

There is not a more promifing fign in a young perfon, than a readiness to hear the advice of thofe whofe age and experience qualify them for judging maturely. The knowledge of the world, and of the arts of life, can only be attained by experience and action. Therefore if a young perfon, who, through obftinacy, rejects the advice of experienced people, fucceeds in his defigns, it is owing to fome ftrange interpofition of Providence, or concurrence of circumftances. For fuch a one, entering into life, wholly unacquainted with the difficulties and dangers of it, and refolutely bent against advice, runs the fame hazard as a perfon, wholly ignorant of failing, who fhould, against the judgment of experienced pilots, undertake to fteer a fhip through the most dangerous fea in a tempeft.

It feems at firft view, a very odd turn in human nature, that young people are generally much more conceited of their own judgments, than thofe who are come to maturity. One would wonder how they should mifs reflecting, that perfons more advanced in age than themfelves, have of courfe the advantage of fo many years' experience beyond themfelves; and that, if all other things were equal, the fingle circumftance of having feen more of the world, muft neceffarily enable them to judge better of it.

Life is a journey; and they only who have travelled a confiderable way in it, are fit to direct those who are fetting out.

Let me therefore advise my young readers, to pay the utmoft deference to the advices or commands of thofe, who are their fuperiors in age and experience. Old people, it must be owned, will fometimes obtrude their advice in a manner not very engaging. Their infirmities, the ufual attendants of age, together with their concern for the wrong fteps they fee their young relations and acquaintance taking, will fometimes occafion their treating them with what may be taken for ill-nature; whereas, it may be in reality their love for the perfons of their young friends, and their zeal for their interefts, which warm them. Do not therefore attend to the manner of the advice; but only to the matter of it. It would be of very little confequence to you, if you was going toward a precipice in a dark night, whether you were warned of your danger by a rude clown, or by a polite gentleman, so you efcaped it. In the fame manner, if a remonftrance is made upon any part of one's conduct, in the rougheft manner; the only thing to be confidered, is, whether we can profit by it, and the rudeness of the perfon, who made it, fhould go for nothing; as one would fwallow a medicine, not for its gratefulnels to the tafte, but for its effect on the conftitution.

As to the fubmiffion a young man owes to his fuperiors, as parents, mafters, &c, if it were not a duty, prudence alone would lead him to yield it readily and cheerfully in all cafes that are lawful. For it is to be confidered, that the confequences of refufing are incomparably worse than thofe of fubmiffion; the world being always ready to lay the blame upon the young perfon, in cafe of a rupture between them, and not upon the old; and nothing being more to the difadvantage of a young perfon's character, than the reproach of an obftinate or unfettled turn of mind. It would indeed be impoffible to carry on the affairs of the world, if children, apprentices, fervants, and other dependents,

D.4

were

were to spend time in difputing the commands of their fuperiors; it being in many cafes hard to give an account of the fitnefs or unfitnefs of things prefcribed, and in many altogether improper. Nor is it lefs commendable nor lefs graceful to obey cheerfully, than to direct prudently. No perfon is likely to command well, who has never learnt to obey.

It will be very imprudent in a young perfon to take any material ftep in life, without confulting the aged and experienced, efpecially, if poflible, fuch as have had experience in his way of life. In one's choice of a friend, for fuch occafions, fmoothness of speech or complaifance is not to be regarded. On the contrary, the most valuable friend is he, who joins to a thorough knowledge of men and things, matured by age and experience, an open, blunt, and honeft behaviour; who will rather magnify, than palliate, the faults and imprudences of his friend, to his face, however he may defend him behind his back; and will not, on account of the trifling hazard of difobliging, fuffer him to take a wrong ftep, without making an open and honeft remonftrance upon it.

There is one particular confideration, that makes afking the advice of one's friends prudent and judicious. It is-That, if it fhould fo happen, as it often muft, in fpite of one's utmost precaution, that his affairs fhould take a wrong turn, he will not only have the lefs reafon to reflect upon himself; but the mouths of others likewife will generally be stopped; as he may for the most part have his advifers at leaft, from mere felf-conceit, to ftand up for the prudence of his conduct, which was the confequence of their advice,

You will often find, that in the very propofing to your friend your difficulty, you yourself fhall hit upon the means of getting over it, before he has time to give you his opinion upon it. And you will likewife find, that in advifing with a friend, a word dropt by him shall furnish you a valuable hint for your conduct, which you hall wonder how you yourfelf came to mifs.

It must be owned, however, that there are cafes in which no man can judge fo well what fteps fhould be

taken

taken as the perfon concerned; because he himself may know feveral important particulars in his own affairs, which would make it highly improper for him to follow the directions another perfon might give, who was not aware of thofe circumftances. Whoever, therefore, gives up his judgment, and acts contrary to his own better knowledge, in compliance with the advice of his acquaintance, or with common cuftom, is guilty of a weakness, the confequences of which may prove fatal.

SECT. 11.

Of Method, Application, and proper Times for Bufinefs. Of Trufling to others.

HERE is nothing that contributes more to the!

Tready and advantageous despatch, as well as to the

fafety and fuccefs of bufinefs, than method and regularity. Let a man fet down in his memorandum-book, every morning, the feveral articles of bufinefs he has to do through the day; and beginning with the first perfon he is to call upon, or the first place he is to go to, finish that affair (if it is to be done at all) before he begins another; and fo on to the reft. A man of business, who obferves this method, will hardly ever find himself hurried or difconcerted by forgetfulness: And he who fets down all his tranfactions in writing, and keeps his accounts, and the whole ftate of his affairs, in a diftinct and accurate order, fo that he can at any time, by looking into his books, prefently fee in what condition his bufinefs is, and whether he is in a thriving or declining way; fuch a one, I fay, deferves properly the character of a man of bufinefs, and has a fair profpect of carrying his fchemes to an happy iffue. But fuch exactness as this will by no means fuit the man of pleasure, who has other things in his head.

The way to tranfact a great deal of bufinefs in a little time, and with great certainty, is to obferve thefe rules. To speak to the point. To ufe no more words than are neceffary fully to exprefs your meaning; and to ftudy before-hand, and fet down in writing afterwards, a sketch of the tranfaction.

The

There is one piece of prudence above all others absolutely neceffary to thofe who expect to raise themselves in the world by an employment of any kind; I mean a conftant and unwearied application to the main purfuit. By means of indefatigable diligence, joined with fru gality, we fee many people in the lowest and most laborious ftations in life, raife them felves to fuch circumtances, as will allow them, in their old age, that ease from labour of body and anxiety of mind, which is neceffary to make the decline of life fupportable. I have heard of a tradesman who, at his firft fetting out, opened and fhut his shop every day, for several weeks together, without felling goods to the value of one penny; who, by the force of application for a course of years, raised at laft a handfome fortune: And I have known many who have had a variety of opportunities for fettling themselves comfortably in the world, and who, for want of steadiness to carry any one scheme to perfection, have funk from one degree of wretchednefs to another for many years together, without all hopes of ever getting above distress and pinching want.

There is hardly an employment in life fo mean that will not afford a fubfiftence, if conftantly applied to: And it is only by dint of indefatigable diligence, that a fortune is to be acquired in bufinefs. An eftate got by what is commonly called a lucky hit, is a rare inftance; and he who expects to have his fortune made in that way, is much about as rational as he who fhould neglect all probable means of living, on the hopes that he should fome time or other find a treafure. The misfortune of indolence is, That there is no fuch thing as continuing in the fame condition without an income of one kind or other. If a man does not beftir himself, poverty must overtake him at laft.. If he continues to give out for the neceffary charges of life, and will not take the pains to gain fomewhat to fupply his out-givings, his funds must at length come to an end, and mifery come upon himr at a period of life when he is leaft able to grapple with it, I mean in old age, if not before.

The character of a fluggard muft, I think, be owned to be one of the most contemptible. In proportion to

a per

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