advantage of a plentiful subsistence; and make you a support, a comfort, and a benefit, to your friends and your country.

Be frugal in your expenses. Live within the compass of your income. Before you spend, ask yourself: "Can 1 not do well enough without this expense? Is there an absolute necessity for it? Can I not forbear, till I am in a better condition to defray it? If I buy or borrow, am I sure I can pay? and when? Will this expense hold out? How shall I bring about the next quarter, or the next year?"

Be careful not to run into debt. Be content to want things that are not of absolute necessity, rather than to take them upon credit. He who is in debt, usually pays, in the end, a third part more than the principal comes to; he is in perpetual servitude to his creditors; and is sometimes obliged even to increase his debts in order to stop their mouths; he lives uncomfortably; and he oftenfalls into desperate courses.

The love of fine clothes and new fashions, and the valuing of ourselves upon them, are a most childish piece of folly, and the occasion of great extravagance. Let your apparel be comely, plain, and decent, not curious nor costly. To long for every new fashion, or to think oneself the better for it, or the worse without it, is the sign of a weak head.

Beware of gaming. It makes a man wild, and unsettled; impatient of an honest calling, or of moderate, lawful gain. It is a vice that seldom goes alone; debauchery of all kinds commonly accompany it.

Be respectful to all; familiar with few. Be careful with whom you consort; and much more careful with whom you become intimate. By conversing with learned

wise, and sober persons, you will gain learning and wisdom, and improve yourself in virtue and goodness.

Consider before you speak. Do not talk at random, or at a venture. Let your words be few, and to the purpose. Be more ready to hear than to talk. Accustom yourself to speak leisurely and deliberately; this will be a means of making you speak warily and considerately.

Beware of lying: it is displeasing to God, and offensive to man; and always, in the end, turns to the reproach or disadvantage of him who uses it. Believe not hastily strange news and stories; and do not report · them, though at second hand: for if they prove untrue, (and commonly strange stories prove so,) they will bring an imputation of levity upon him who reports them, and possibly some disadvantage to others.

Take care that you promise nothing but what is just, and lawful, and in your power to perform: and when you have so promised, be true to your word. Breach of promises and lying are much of the same nature; they commonly go together; and they are arguments of a weak and unmanly mind.

Be grateful to your benefactors, especially to those who, under God, were instrumental for your good, in your late sickness, and return thanks to them: to your father, who spared no cost for your recovery; to your doctor, who was exceedingly diligent about you; to those who attended you in your sickness; and to those who, together with your father, often prayed to God for your recovery, and for a blessing upon this affliction, whose names you shall, in due time, particularly know. But, above all, be grateful to Almighty God, who not only provided and blessed the means, but sayed

and delivered you, above means, and when means

failed.

I shall conclude with one advice more, without the observance of which my labour in writing this long epistle will probably be fruitless: be not wise in your awn conceit. Self conceit is the unhappy error, and often the ruin, of young persons. They are usually rash, giddy, and inconsiderate; and yet extremely confident in that which they have least reason to trust, namely, their own understanding: which renders them reserved to those who are most willing and able to advise them; impatient of reproof; fond of flattery; and incapable of good and wise counsel, till their follies have reduced them to extreme straits and inconveniences, Suspect, therefore, your own judgment; advise often with your father, especially in all things of moment; be glad of his counsel, and be contented and willing to follow it, and to guide your life according to it, at least, till ripeness of age, observation, and experience, have, enabled you better to advise yourself. This is an easy, ready, and cheap way of attaining wisdom, and avoiding infinite inconveniences,

If I find that my directions are dutifully observed by you, I shall be ready, from time to time, freely to advise, and direct you; and I shall have great assurance that God has blessed this visitation to you. But, on the other hand, if I find that you neglect my counsels; that you make light of them; and that you pursue those courses which will certainly be bitterness in the end; I shall pray for you, I shall be sorry for you: but I shall not easily be persuaded to give you any more advice or counsel.

The Almighty has not been wanting to you in admo

nition and correction, in mercy and deliverance; neither has your father been wanting to you in education and counsel, in care and expense. That God may bless all

Dr. Doddridge to a young lady, preparing for a voyage to the East Indies.

Madam,

Northampton, Feb. 14, 1730.

Though I have not the happiness of a personal acquaintance with you, your good mother informed me at large of your character and circumstances; and it is by her desire that I use a freedom in addressing you, which would not otherwise be pardonable in one who is a stranger. She is tenderly solicitous, that whithersoever you go, the gracious presence of a heavenly Parent, and a pious sense of duty to him, may always accompany you. And as she knows you must resign some of those religious advantages, which you have long enjoyed, she has been urgent with me to put something into your hand, which may be reviewed whenever you please; and which, by the Divine blessing, may be useful to you, as being peculiarly suited to your present circum

stances.

On my part, madam, I undertake the task with a great deal of cheerfulness; not only to oblige her, who is my valuable friend, but with some encouraging hope, that it may be serviceable to you. I have had many anxious thoughts about you, since your mother and I talked of you; so that you and your

affairs are grown

very familiar to my mind, and I begin to enter into them with something of a brother's affection.

I hope this concern will sufficiently justify a plainness, which, in such a case, becomes almost unavoidable; and I persuade myself, madam, that when you consider it as proceeding from such a principle, you will not be offended, though I tell you that I almost tremble to think of the variety of dangers to which you are going to be exposed. I am young myself: yet I have already learned by too frequent experience, that, in the morning of life, we naturally delude ourselves with pleasing dreams; we fix our eyes on what is most delightful in a distant prospect; but either entirely overlook what is dangerous and threatening, or at most bestow only a Fransient glance upon it. You think, no doubt, with a great deal of pleasure, of seeing a variety of new objects in a fine country, vastly different from our own; especially of meeting a brother, whom you have never yet seen, but who, at so remote a distance, has expressed the tenderest regard for you. And you are charmed with the prospect of meeting him, in a place where he knows not any superior; of sharing with him in his plenty and magnificence; and of being treated by all about you with the respect due to a governor's sister. I own there is something very splendid and striking in such a view, and I heartily congratulate you upon it. But let me entreat you, madam, to consider that it is possible you may never reach the country which is to be the scene of so many entertainments. There are unknown hazards in a voyage to the Indies. Before you have performed half of it, some unexpected event may put a period to these hopes, and to your life. Or, if you reach

it is certain that dangers will attend you there; dangers