Extract from Dr. Franklin's remarks on Luxury, Idleness, and Industry.
Some of those who grow rich will be prudent, live within bounds, and preserve what they have gained for their posterity: others, fond of shewing their wealth, will be extravagant, and ruin themselves. Laws cannot prevent this; and perhaps it is not always an evil to the public. A shilling spent idly by a fool, may be picked up by a wiser person, who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore not lost. A vain silly fellow builds a fine house, furnishes it richly, lives in it expensively, and in a few years ruins himself: but the masons, carpenters, smiths, and other honest tradesmen, have been by his employ assisted in maintaining and raising their families: the farmer has been paid for his labour, and encouraged, and the estate is now in better hands. In some cases, indeed, certain modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the same manner as it is a private one.
THE END.
[Transcriber's Note:
Older form of contractions retained.
Spelling "aground" and "a-ground" used in the text.
Spelling "ale-house" and "alehouse" used in the text.
Spelling "bed-side" and "bedside" used in the text.
Spelling "gate-way" and "gateway" used in the text.