OCR Text |
Show know. And all I afk in Return for the Diligence I ufed with you, and the Anxiety you cofl: · me while under my Care, is, Only to be fo much your own Friend, as to attend to the following Advices, and to fludy to regulate your Conduct by them ; in the doing of which I am :Perfuaded you will (by the Graoe of G od) find yourfelf the happier m this World, and will die the better prepared for another. While you are under the Direction of a Parent or Mafl:er, let me advife you to fubmit frankly and readily to all his Commands, reafonablc and unreafonable, eafy and difficult. So long as a Parent or Mafl:er commands nothing inconfif1:ent with the Laws of God and of the Land, it is both the Duty and the Wifdom of a Dependent or Child to obey. That it is his indifpenfable Duty, i$ clear from Scripture (of which afterwards) and likewife from Reafon: .For that, if every Dependent or Child were to take the liberty of difputing the Orders of his Parent or Maller (of which he cannot in mofl: Cafes be a Judge, and in many · ought not to <~:quire into) there would be an End of all Order and Expedition io Bufinefs of all kinds. And, . that it is his wifefl: Courfe, will appear plainly, if you confider, that it is much better f<Jr a young Man to bear with a little Hardfhip fur a few Years, than to throw himfelf upon the IV odd wholly unprepared for making his ":•y in Life. That it it is better to put up with • little Peevilhne!s for a lhort time, than to put one's Friends and Relations to a ft:aml, and to draw upon himfelf the CharaBer of bcina of an obf1:inate and ungovernable Temper, :t1ich is ,, i• always taken for granted by the vr orld, when a young Man goes away abruptly from his Apprenucellllp, or other Settlement in which his Friends have placed him, in order to his goinoo out in the World. " There is nothing of fo much confcquence te>~ a.rJ gaining a handfomc Subfifience, and arnvmg at an eafy and comfortable Situation in the World, as conllant Application to Bufinefs, and a fieddy Purfuit of the main Point. Yol! will always find, that, for one Efl:atc gained by what are called the Projects, or bold Strokes out of the common way, five hundred arc got by an evenly and regular Purfuit of the Employments Men are bred to. If, therefore, you be · wrfe, you wrll always be fufpicious of all manner of new Schemes, that may be propofcd to you. And you ought likewife to be on your guard as to Amufements and Diverfions, which, if too rnu.ch indulged, will take you ofF from your mam Purfuit, and may in time put you quite out of humour with your Bufinefs. You muir therefore confider them only as Recreations by the bye, to fill up an interval of fpare time no\V and then, and to give you frelh Spirits after the Fatigue which a long and conllant Application to Bufinefs would bring upon you. The bcfr rule to obferve as to Diverfions, is the following. " That you never indulge yourfclf in any that " are agai·nfl: the Laws of God or Society, "or that, either by their Natut'e, or by your " exceffivc Indulgence in them, may exceed the '' Expence or 1~ime, a Man may fpare without' " the /eajl Damage, or chance of Prejudice t<> " his Affairs." If you tranfgrefs this Rule in the leaf!:, it is a thowfand to one but y.:>u bring B 3 yourfelf |