The brief remarker on the ways of man; or, Compendious dissertations, respecting social and domestic relations and concerns, and the various economy of life
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• /% ,=5^ ./ V .} * ■ •v V^*> %.^>0 V'^V % •>. >N\**.V y.2*ik:-^ s.-ik;*'-*' W 0° \ V4 * <£. THE BRIEF REMAMEB. THE BRIEF REMARKED OX THE WAYS OF MAN: OR, COMPENDIOUS DISSERTATIONS RESPECTING SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND CONCERNS, AND THE VARIOUS ECONOMY OF LIFE. BT EZRA ^f A MPSON. " The spacious West, " And all the teeming regions of the South, " Hold not a quarry, to the curious flight " Of knowledge, half so tempting or so fair " As JIan to Man,''' Akknside. NEW YORK: D. APPLE TON AND COMPANY, 3i6 & 343 BROADWAY 1855. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S55, by JOSEPH SAMPSON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. CONTENTS PAGB NUMBER I. Of the peculiar causes of so prevalent a restlessness of disposition, . « . . 11 NUMBER II. Of troubles of our own making, 15 NUMBER III. Of self-inflicted tortures, 19 NUMBER IV. Of greedy ambitiousness after wealth —ominously the master-passion oi the times, . 23 NUMBER Y. Of the tyranny of Fashion in laying enormous taxes upon common-conditioned folks, and grinding the faces of the poor, 27 NUMBER VI. Of the papal rescript from the Court of Fashion, indirectly forbidding to marry, . . 31 NUMBER VII. Of the elevation of the condition and character of women by means of Christianity, . 35 NUMBER VIII. Of self-ignorance and self-adulation, 39 NUMBER IX. Of the wide difference between wisdom and cunning, 43 NUMBER X. Of the temporal advantages of uprightness of character, 47 NUMBER XL An exemplification of true Christian honesty, 50 NUMBER XII. Of the prevailing habit of promise-breaking in common dealing, 54 NUMBER XIII. Of the heavy tax laid upon all worldly eminence, 58 0 CONTENTS. NUMBEPw XIV. Of the inestimable value of a pious, discreet, and faithful mother, 62 NUMBER XY. Truths said of boys, which boys will ne'er believe, 66 NUMBER XYI. Of the contempt of womankind, 70 NUMBER XVII. Of the increase of consequence ordinarily given a man by marrying, . . . .74 NUMBER XVIII. Of the use and necessity of small change in social and domestic commerce, . . . 7S NUMBER XIX. Of the great social law, enjoining it upon each to yield place to each, . . . .82 NUMBER XX Of the necessity of learning how to use money, 85 NUMBER XXI. Of the wonderful boy, 89 NUMBER XXII. Of bridling the tongue, 93 NUMBER XXIII. Of saying too much, . . 96 NUMBER XXIV. Of the salutary effects of the necessity, laid upon man, to labor, 100 NUMBER XXV. Of the design and use of the thumb, 104 NUMBER XXVI. Of idlers, 108 NUMBER XXVII. Of productive labor, other than that of the hands, 112 NUMBER XXVIII. A sorrow-soothing Scottish legend, 117 NUMBER XXIX. Of maternal tenderness; or the sorrows of the daughter of Aiah, .... .121 NUMBER XXX. Of prudence in the ordinary concerns of life, 125 NUMBER XXXI. Of the vast importance of manner in giving counsel and reproof, 130 NUMBER XXXII, Of truth -speaking as denoting courage, 134 NUMBER XXXIIT. Of vulgarity, 138 CONTENTS. 7 NUMBER XXXIV. Of the very great influence of use or custom, as respects children, upon their disposi- tions and characters in after life, 142 NUMBER XXXV. Of the advantages of the long-protracted weakness and dependence of childhood, . . 147 NUMBER XXXVI. Of the moral benefits accruing to parents by means of the good instruction they give their children, . .150 NUMBER XXXVII. Of the condition of old age — with directions for lightening its burden, . . . .154 NUMBER XXXVIII. Of the silly quarrel between a venerable old couple about a little goat, .... 159 NUMBER XXXIX. Of friendship, and the choice of friends, 164 NUMBER XL. Of the importance of learning to say, No, 4 169 NUMBER XLI. Of the calamities of hereditary idleness, 172 NUMBER XLII. Of the lamentable species of helplessness occasioned by pride and false shame, . .176 NUMBER XLIII. Of the proper and improper, as depending upon the diverse circumstances and ages of life, . ISO NUMBER XLIV. Of keeping children from the company of children, 154 NUMBER XLV. Of teaching children to lie, 1SS NUMBER XL VI. Of habitual discontent, arising from imaginary wants, 193 NUMBER XLVII. Of several of the predisposing causes of unhappy marriages, 197 NUMBER XLV III. Of favoritism in the dealings of parents with their children, . . . 201 NUMBER XLIX. Of the inestimable benefits of law, 2(K NUMBER L. Of a disputatious temper and habit, 210 NUMBER LI. Of overdoing in governing children, 215 NUMBER LIE Of procrastination, 21 ) 8 CONTENTS. PAGE NUMBER LIII. Of the well-informed, . ... 224 NUMBER LIY. Of the va'nness of trying to please everybody, 223 NUMBER LY. Of the easiness of the transition from Christian civilization to comparative barbarism, . 231 NUMBER LYI. A comment upon a celebrated allegory of antiquity, 23(5 NUMBER LYII. Of forgetting old debts, and shuffling off the payment of small ones, . . . .241 NUMBER LYIIL Of devotedness to pleasure, 245 NUMBER LIX. Of vanity, as making part of the warp of our general nature 250 NUMBER LX. Of the rueful consequences of living too fast, 255 NUMBER LXI. Of banqueting upon borrowing, 259 NUMBER LX1I. Of the principle of shame, 264 NUMBER LXIII. Of virtuous poverty, 26S NUMBER LXIY. Of frivolity of character, 271 NUMBER LXY. Of the natural and the moral heart, 275 NUMBER LXY1. Of moral education, 2S0 NUMBER LXYII. Of the power of the imagination over young minds— instanced in George Hopewell, . 2S6 NUMBER LXYIII. Of the foul nature and direful effects of customary gaming, 290 NUMBER LXIX. Of the almost insuperable power of habit, 294 NUMBER LXX. Of the world, 293 NUMBER LXXI. Of the inquisitiveness of children, 303 NUMBER LXXII. Of the influence of early impressions upon all the following periods of life, . . . 807 CONTENTS. 9 PAGE NUMBER LXXIII. Of calamitous reverses in respect to worldly circumstances, 312 NUMBER LXXIV. Of the attention due both to mind and body, 317 NUMBER LXXV. Of the general proneness to petty scandal, 321 NUMBER LXXVL Of enjoying independence as to worldly circumstances without possessing wealth, . 321 NUMBER LXXVIL Of the early and ardent desire for power, 33J NUMBER LXXYIII. ^ Of giving in marriage, 335 NUMBER LXXIX. Of useful industry, considered as a moral duty, 339 NUMBER LXXX. Of the moral use of the pillow — with reflections on sleep, 343 NUMBER LXXXI. Of the two opposite errors — the extreme of susjucion and the extreme of confidence, . 343 NUMBER LXXXII. Of sunshine friends, 352 NUMBER LXXXIIL Of the misuse of the faculties of memory, 356 NUMBER LXXXIV. Of attaining a facility of utterance, or vocal expression, 360 NUMBER LXXXV. A comment upon the fable of the invisible spectacles, 365 NUMBER LXXXYI. Of the misuse, and the proper use, of reading, 369 NUMBER LXXXVII. Of excessive and indiscriminate novel-reading, 374 NUMBER LXXX VIII. Of the impassable and unalterable limits to the pleasures of sense, 379 NUMBER LXXXIX. Of the difference between ignorance and a natural weakness of understanding, . . 383 NUMBER XC. Of evil thinking 3S7 NUMBER XCI. Of treating children with excessive severity, 391 NUMBER XCIL Of drawing and fixing the attention of children, 395 1* 10 CONTENTS. PAGK NUMBER XCIII. Of balancing the principles of hope and fear in the governance of children, . . . 399 NUMBER XCIV. Of brevity in relation to sundry particulars, 403 NUMBER XCY. Of some particulars conducive to conjugal peace and happiness 407 NUMBER XCVI. Of regarding accomplishments as the principal part of female education,' . . .413 NUMBER XCTII. Of the common use of false weights and measures in dealing out both praise and censure, 418 NUMBER XCYIII. Of an officious meddling with, and a total disregard of the affairs of others, . . . 423 NUMBER XCIX. Of turning good to ill by tampering with it, ... 42T NUMBER C. Of a restless desire to know what others say of us, 432 NUMBER CI. Summary characteristics, 436 NUMBER CIL Of the necessity of seasonable precaution, . 440 NUMBER CHI. Of our proneness to go from one extreme to another, 444 NUMBER CIV. Of despising small things, 44S NUMBER CV. Of cutting the coat to the cloth, 452 NUMBER CVI. A solemn monition, 466 THE BRIEF REMARKER NUMBEE I. OF THE PECULIAE CAUSES OF SO PEEVALEXT A EESTLESSNESS OF DISPOSITION. While some ruin their circumstances by their indolence, others do it by their restlessness ; always busy, but never pursuing any plan of regular industry. No sooner are they settled down in one business, than they change it for another. They are " every thing by turns and nothing long." Their attention thus dissi- pated turns to no account, and poverty overtakes them while they are flying so many different ways to escape it. Whereas a steady, straightforward course in almost any single business might have secured them a competence. It is neither an imaginary nor a rare character, that I have now been describing : it is to be met with every where, in town and country. Thousands are undone by means of this single foible ; every thing else in their habits and dispositions giving promise of success. This restlessness is owing sometimes to natural temper ; but most commonly, perhaps, to the peculiar 12 THE BRIEF REMARKER circumstances of the country in which we live. In China, a boy must follow the occupation of his father, and stick to that or starve. In India, no one can raise himself above the level of the caste in which he happens to be born. Nor is the mass of Europeans altogether free from shackles, that bind them down to occupations in which their own choice has had no concern. If a man there be bred a cobbler, he hardly may aspire to the honor of making shoes. But here, on the other hand, a man may put off his calling almost as easily as his clothes : or he may patch together several callings, and pursue them alternately or all at once, as best suits his own fancy. Here, the field of individual enterprise is alike open to all. Here, no one is of a family so humble as to be precluded from the possibility of rais- ing himself, not only to opulence, but to office and rank. Here, wealth is shifting hands with such rapidity that, in one or two generations, the hills sink and the valleys rise. Now, as this condition of things animates thousands with the spirit of enterprise, so it occasions in very many a restless- ness and instability of feeling. Possessing freedom of choice, and having before them so many objects to choose betwixt, they never come to an. election that fully satisfies them. Add to this, that the last twenty-five years have (by reason of the unex- ampled state of Europe) furnished instances, in almost every district of our country, of some rising suddenly to great opu- lence, by a single stroke in the experiments of speculation, and without any attention at all to the process of patient industry ; — a circumstance that has operated powerfully on young minds, and on minds not young, in rendering them dissatisfied with slow gains or small profits, and impatient of the drudgery of ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 13 any laborious calling. Not to mention that our countr}7 has. of itself, for a very long time past, furnished magnificent scenes, and numerous opportunities of speculation, altogether unexam- pled perhaps in the history of man. Moreover, it is obvious to remark, that our enterprising youth are necessarily, as it were, tinctured with a romantic dis- position. The books that they most read, are of the romantic kind ; alike inflaming the imagination, and misleading the judg- ment, by descriptions :: of a world where events are produced by causes widely and manifestly different from those which regu- late the course of human affairs." Also, for almost the term of a whole generation, there has been constantly exhibited to view such a series of marvels in the civilized world, that the history of real life carries on it the appearance of romance. Nothing very strange is it, therefore, that the minds of a great many are unsettled, notional, and fraught with extrava- gant expectations. And this is the less to be wondered at, as it is customary for our youth to step into manhood earlier than in former ages, or perhaps than in any country else. Commenc- ing men at an immature period, and under such powerful im- pulses to wild extravagances of imagination, it would be mar- vellous indeed if they were not, many of them, averse to any sober, rational, and steady plan of life. To contrast the past with the present in a short biographical notice of one of the first and wealthiest merchants of the last age, the writer remarks : — " It was an invariable rule with him to avoid every kind of dangerous experiment, and to confine himself to such branches of trade as admitted the surest princi- ples of calculation." — This golden rule of business, which in 14 THE BRIEF REMARKER former times of " steady habits " was sacredly regarded, not merely by that merchant, but generally ; — this golden rule of business has, by a concurrence of unparalleled circumstances, been made to give place to rashness of speculation and a rest- less spirit of adventure — an evil, which nothing but length of time, and the smart-giving rod of stern experience will, in any likelihood, be able to cure. ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 15 NUMBER II. OF TROUBLES OF OUR OWN MAKING. There is in our nature such a restlessness of disposition, that we commonly make to ourselves more than half the evils we feel. Unsatisfied with what we are, or possess, we are still crav- ing something past or to come, and by regrets, desires, and fears, are perpetually poisoning the streams of present enjoyment. The weather is too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry. If we have nothing to do, time hangs upon us an insupportable burdeD. If our circumstances compel us to daily labor, we fret to see others enjoying their leisure. Although we have food and raiment enough, and good enough, still we are dissatisfied that we are not rich. If, on the contrary, we chance to be rich, the weight of cares, the pains of getting, the difficulty of keeping, and the fears of losing, give us incessant disquiet and fatigue. Mrs. Thrift has a decent competence, together with a kind husband, and fine children ; but her heart is sick because she cannot live in the splendid style of her wealthy neighbor, Mrs. Modish. At the same time, Mrs. Modish, yoked to a surly, 16 THE BRIEF EEMARKER snappish, gouty husband, is secretly envying the condition of Mrs. Thrift. Honest Abraham has a good farm, and is an excellent farmer, and free of debt; but his peace of mind is destroyed by being disappointed of an office ; — an office, too, without emol- ument. Farmer Thomas, his more artful neighbor who got the office, no sooner received his commission, than he began to dash away like a gentleman, and consequently neglected his farm, and impoverished his family ; and by this time he sincerely regrets his having been so foolish as to barter solid pudding for empty honor. Mercator, having acquired a snug estate by trade, grows uneasy, and sighs for a country life. Purling brooks, vocal groves, fragrant meadows, blooming orchards, and fields covered with a golden harvest, enchant his imagination. He sells his stock in trade, and purchases a farm, which he manages with about as much skill as a mere landsman would manage a ship at sea : it brings him in debt ; and venting upon it no very gentle epithets, he longs to leave it, and go back to the situation he had abandoned. Agricolus, weary of a dull, plodding way of living and of slow gains, leaves the plough and becomes a merchant. He sells his fast estate, and purchases with it goods, running in debt a few thousands, as he, would needs have a handsome assortment. His goods are unskilfully chosen, and meet with a wretched market. Pay day comes, and his creditors, blest with excellent memories, are prompt in urging him to a settlement. But, alas ! of money he has none. And now, " to break or not to break, that's the question." He struggles hard, makes new debts to ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 17 pay old ones, sells at great loss ; borrows money at 30 or 40 per cent., breaks at last ; and whereas he merely imagined himself unhappy while holding the plough, he now feels that he is so indeed. Thus mankind, from a restless disposition, render themselves wretched, when they might be much at their ease. It would be worth to one, more than any, or even all of the arts and sciences, to learn the art of living happily. I don't mean perfect happiness, which is not to be enjoyed here: but such a degree of happiness as our Maker has put in our power. The art of living happily does not lie in stoical apathy ; for as to the real and sharp afflictions of life, while one ought " to bear them like a man, he should also feel them like a man." Nor does he know the sweets of friendship, who feels little or no pain at being sundered from a near friend. Much less does it lie in the nauseating lap of gross sensuality; for the enjoyment of the mere sensualist is no higher than that of the pampered horse in the stable or stud, or the fattening pig in the sty. Indeed the brute has much the advantage, as it lives according to its nature and destination, while the man is haunted with a perpetual con- sciousness of the shameful degradation of his moral and intel- lectual faculties. The following maxims, or rules of action might, if strictly observed, go far to increase the happiness, or, at least, to di- minish the inquietudes and miseries of life. Live constantly in the unshaken belief of the overruling provi- dence of an infinitely wise and good, as well as Almighty Being ; and prize his power above all things. Observe inviolably truth in your words, and integrity in your actions. 18 THE BRIEF REMARKER Accustom yourself to temperance, and be master of your passions. Be not too much out of humor with the world ; but remem- ber, it is a world of God's creating, and however sadly it is marred by wickedness and folly, yet you have found in it more comforts than calamities, more civilities than affronts, more in- stances of kindness towards 3^011 than of cruelty. Try to spend your time usefully both to yourself and others. Never make an enemy, or lose a friend unnecessarily. Cultivate such an habitual cheerfulness of mind, and evenness of temper, as not to be ruffled by trivial inconveniences and crosses. Be ready to heal breaches in friendship, and to make up differences ; and shun litigation yourself as much as possible ; for he is an ill calculator, who does not perceive that one amicable settlement is better than two lawsuits. Be it rather your ambition to acquit yourself well in your proper station than to rise above it. Despise not small honest gains, nor risk what you have on the delusive prospect of sudden riches. If you are in a comfortable thriving way, keep in it, and abide in your own calling rather than run the chance of another. In a word, mind to " use the world as not abusing it," and probably you will find as much comfort in it as is most lit for a frail being, who is merely journeying through it toward an immortal abode. ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 19 NUMBER III. OF SELF-INFLICTED TORTURES. Nothing is more common than the discontent of those who have not even a shadow of cause for discontent. They are neither sick, nor pinched with poverty, nor called to sustain dis- tressing hardships. They enjoy both food and appetite. They have raiment to put on, and friends to converse with ; and if not rich, have fully enough for the moderate supply of all their real wants. Yet these enjoyments, these bounties of indulgent Heaven, are poisoned, as it were, by the discontent of their minds, so that they are wretched amidst health and competence. What are the illusions that thus obstruct the sources of eDJoyment, and, in this favored country, cheat so many out of the happiness of which Providence had put them in possession ? — They are such as usually spring from one or other of the three follow- ing causes ; — perverseness of temper ; false theories of worldly happiness ; the influence of opinion. With respect to enjoying ourselves or not in life, more, a 20 THE BEIEF REMARKEB great deal, depends upon temper than upon circumstances. Xot that our enjoyments are not always considerably affected by our worldly circumstances, and sometimes in a very great decree ; but if they are such, that we are able to supply ourselves with all the real necessaries and essential comforts of life, it is not our circumstances; but our tempers that are in fault, if we are not too happy to complain, and too grateful to repine. The root of our uneasiness is altogether in our own minds, and without a thorough change there, no change of place or of outward circum- stances could quiet us. What though all our present ideal wants were satisfied ? other ideal wants would presently start up, and we should still be weaving for ourselves the web of miser v. A temper, that inclines to be satisfied with its present lot, is worth more than thousands a year ; whereas restlessness of temper is one of the greatest of misfortunes. A full half of human trou- bles would vanish, and the rest be lightened, if there were a thorough cure of this one scrofulous disease of the heart. Our false theories of worldly happiness constitute another huge class of troubles of our own making : and the effects of these false theories are the more deplorable, inasmuch as the disappointments, inevitably resulting from them, sour the dispo- sition, and thereby enhance the numbers of the wretched victims of temper. Corporeal enjoyments are few and simple ; neither wealth, nor any of the arts of refinement, can add considerably to their number, or any thing at all to their relish. The pleas- ures of sense are limited by narrow boundaries, which never can be passed without instantly turning pleasure into pain : and however much we may refine upon the pleasures of sense, our re- finements can increase them but very little. The most refined ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 21 epicure, for example, has scarcely any more enjoyment of the pleasures of the table, than one who confines himself to the plain- est viands. Wherefore nothing is more plain and easy of com- prehension than the true notion of mere worldly happiness : — the whole sum of it results from health, competence, the friendly so- ciety of neighbors and acquaintance, and the pure joys of domes- tic life. He that has these, though he have neither wealth nor rank, enjoys about all the world can bestow. But these real and unsophisticated enjoyments, which are bestowed in fully as large measure upon the peasant as upon the prince, are too vulgar for the fastidious taste of visionary speculatists ; they must find a something that is quite above and beyond the common blessings of life, else they are determined not to enjoy themselves at all. Thus they lose the good, that lies fairly within their reach, by laying out their endeavors to grasp an abstract something, that is conceivable indeed, but not attainable ; — an ignis fatuus, which the eye plainly sees, but which evades the touch, and baffles all pursuit. The last brood of artificial troubles, which I proposed to notice, are those that are generated by the influence of opinion : I mean not one's own opinion, but the opinion of others. We are such strange and unaccountable creatures, that we are more solicitous to appear happy than really to be so ; and hence we willingly abridge our real enjoyments for the sake of seeming to possess enjoyments superior to those thstt are altogether common to mankind. Now the general opinion of society (a very erro- neous one indeed) makes the pomp of show a prerequisite for being deemed happy, or, at least, for obtaining the credit of re- fined enjo}Tment ; and this general opinion, how much soever we 22 THE BRIEF REMARKER may despise it in our judgments, has an astonishing influence upon our conduct and feelings ; an influence that precipitates hundreds and tens of hundreds from a condition of competence to that of poverty. That apt Remarker, Dr. Franklin, observes ; " The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither fine clothes, fine houses, nor fine furniture." — It is even so; — and it is this supreme regard to the eyes of others, that leads multitudes into extravagant and ruin- ous expenses. Without adequate funds, they build them fine houses, and purchase them fine furniture, and array themselves with costly apparel, that others may gaze upon them as persons possessed of taste and of refined enjoyments ; and by these means they are presently stripped of the very necessaries of life. ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 23 NUMBER IV. OF GEEEDY AMBITIOUSNESS AFTEE WEALTH — OMINOUSLY THE MASTER PASSION OF THE TIMES, Ambition's thorny path is too narrow for two to go abreast. Each struggles hard to get forward of each ; and the one that is foremost of all, must press onward with might and main, else some other will rush by him. He that stumbles is trampled over by the crowd behind him. It is all a scramble, in which the suc- cessful competitors are greeted with shouts of applause, and the unsuccessful assailed with the hisses of derision and scorn. In a former age, it was the ambition of the celebrated Cardi- nal de Retz to be first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens, the Parisians. His munificence exceeded all former example ; his liberalities were unbounded. The courtesy of his manners, and the fascinating charms of his address, won him universal friend- ship and admiration. At home he was crowded with visitors : when he rode through the streets, he was accompanied with a 24 THE BRIEF REMARKER splendid retinue of nobility and gentry, all proud to do him honor ; and whenever he entered the parliament, marked respect and homage were paid him there. But there happened an inci- dent that put this friendship to the test, and proved it light as air. Upon a time the Cardinal was thought to be on the eve of ruin. In that situation he went to the parliament, to clear him self of heavy charges, which his enemies had raised against him. The account of his reception there is thus given in his memoirs, written with his own hand. " We went to the parliament. The princes had there near a thousand gentlemen with them ; and I may say, hardly one from the court was missing there. I was in my church habit, and went through the great hall, with my cap in my hand, saluting everybody; but I met with but few that returned me that civil- ity, so strongly ivas it believed that I was an undone man" Neither is this a solitary example, nor one of rare occurrence. History abounds with examples that, in the falling fortunes of the great and noble of the earth, their friends fall off, like leaves from the trees in the first frosts of autumn. Sir Walter Ra- leigh, alike celebrated as a scholar, a gentleman, a statesman, a soldier, and a man of genius, in his last letter to his wife, after his most unjust condemnation to death, says : " To what friend to direct you I know not ; for all mine have left me in the true time of need." But not any longer to dwell on the scenes of high life, with which the generality of my readers have as little concern as my- self, I will turn now to the walks of the more common sort. In countries where distinction of orders is established by ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 25 law, ambition runs in two different channels. With not a few its main object is rank, titles, stars, garters, and ribbons; these baubles being by them preferred greatly to mere wealth, which is eagerly pursued by those, chiefly, who can have little or no ex- pectation of attaining to the high distinctions of civil, ecclesias- tical, or military rank. Whereas, in this free country of ours, where there is no distinction of orders, and no established rank of one family above another, the undivided current of ambition is to- wards wealth. Avarice is the general and the ruling passion The pursuit of gain is the only secular pursuit that is much val- ued or thought of; because, in the common estimation the grand point of honor is to be rich. Mammon is the idol, to which every thing else is made to bend. Offices are sought after for their emol- uments chiefly. Nay, the august seats of legislation are unhes- itatingly deserted for public employments, barren of honor, but of greater profit. Men are appraised, and rated high or low, according to the magnitude of their property. The common question, What is he worth ? is answered only in one way. If his estate be small, he is worth little ; if he have no estate left, he is worth nothing. It is but of small account, though he have an ample fund of moral and intellectual worth ; — the worth that is most eagerly sought, most highly prized, and most generally esteemed, is pecuniary worth. In the scramble of such multitudes after riches, very many must needs be unsuccessful; for in no country whatever, can more than a comparative few arrive at wealth. By far the greater part of the candidates, falling short of their expecta- tions, endure the pangs of disappointment, and pine under the corro dings of envy. With some avarice defeats its own aim. 2 26 THE BRIEF REMARKER Their greediness of gain, if it impel them not to deeds of fraud or violence, which bring them to shame and ruin, yet spurs them on to engage in rash and ruinous adventures. The estates of others, as Franklin's Poor Bichard said, are spent in the getting. Fondly anticipating a fortune, they dash away as if they really had it in hand. Others again counterfeit the splendor of riches, that they may put themselves and their families in the ranks of honor. But if they have fallen from these appearances, they had better, in the eye of fashion, have fallen from grace. Whatever of estimable and amiable qualities they may possess, they fare with their former visitors and familiars, as the Cardi- nal did with his, at the time he was thought " an undone man." Industry, frugality, and thrift, are republican virtues. But a scrambling for money, as the chief good, is of bad omen. It produces meanness of sentiment and sordidness of disposition. A free people, whose passions are set altogether on the pursuit of gain, can hardly remain free very long ; because the necessary consequence of such a spirit of avarice is fraud in private life, and venality and corruption in public life. An able author, while treating incidentally of the fall of the Boman republic, remarks : — " The course that a free nation runs is from virtuous industry to wealth ; from wealth to luxury ; from luxury to an impatience of discipline and corruption of morals ; till by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it falls at last a prey to some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty, loses every thing else that is valuable." ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 27 NUMBER V. OF THE TYRANNY OF FASHION IX LAYING ENORMOUS TAXES UPON COM- MON-CONDITIONED FOLKS, AND GRINDING THE FACES OF THE POOR. Every one, who reads English history, must know that Richard the Third had a humped back. And, as ancient story goes, humping became quite fashionable during his reign. The cour- tiers, the Lords, the Ladies, and the under gentry, patterning after royalty, wore, each, a fashionable crook in the back : so the English of that day were fi a crooked generation," sure enough. Be this, however, as it may, in point of ridiculous absurdity it hardly exceeds what is very commonly seen among ourselves. Though we would fain be called a Christian people, it is a fact, as notorious as sad, that an anti-christian deity is worshipped among us, in town and country, and by immense numbers of all classes, and of both sexes. Look where you will, you see all ranks bowing, cringing, bendiDg the knee — to what? to Fashion. This is the goddess of their idolatry. They yield implicit obedi- ence to her laws, however absurd and barbarous ; and though she 28 THE BRIEF REMARKER changes as often as the moon, they follow her in all her changes, and ape her in all her freaks, — humping whenever she humps. They are brought to endure cold and nakedness, when but for having followed her mandates, they might be comfortably clad. They reject and despise the diet which she forbids, though whole- some and palatable, and best suited, as well to their constitutions, as to their circumstances. They pay tithes to her of all they possess. Tithes did I say ? It were well if only a tenth would satisfy her ; she often claims even more than one half. Did she tax only the rich, who are able to pay, it would not be so bad ; but she lays her rapacious hands on the middling classes, and even upon the poor. Nay, the knavish hussey seizes what ought to be laid up against old age and sickness, and also what ought to go to the creditor. By the decree of fashion, this republican, and otherwise free nation is thrown into castes, as really in some respects, as the East Indians have been by their Brahmins ; and the only way to gain admission, or maintain a standing in the higher castes, is to dress gorgeously and fare sumptuously, no mat- ter by what means. Hence the general struggle. The rich march foremost in the ranks of fashion, and the others keep as close to their heels as possible, following on in a long train, like files of geese. This is comic in appearance, but tragic in reality. It is amusing, at first thought, to see families, in narrow circumstances, struggling to make the appearance of high life ; to see them vy- ing, not only with one another, but with the rich, to exceed in finery and splendor ; to see how much pains they take, and how many arts they use to dazzle the eyes of the beholder with the mockery of wealth. But on due reflection, one finds more reason to be sad than merry. — When we consider that these deluded ON THE WAYS OF MAN. It is questionable whether great wealth conduces, on the whole, even to worldly happiness. It cannot cure an aching head, or soothe an aching heart ; it is no shield from the shafts of misfor- tune, nor from the arrows of death ; it brings to the possessor an addition of cares as well as of comforts, and is often the means of bringing moral ruin upon his children ; and while it increases his power and influence, it increases^ also, his responsibility. — The rich have, however, one exclusive privilege : they have a right to make a splendid appearance in the world, because their circumstances can well afford it. Fine houses, expensive furni- ture, stately equipage, and sumptuous fare, are within the bounds of their real means, and therefore not censurable in them. In one point of view, the profusion of their expenses is beneficial to the community, as it gives employment, and affords sustenance to industry. Yet there can be shown " a more excellent wa}T.1' — Frugality is comely even in the rich. Not that frugality, which degenerates to parsimony, and causes the rich to wear the garb 30 THE BKIEE EEMARKEE of poverty, from a sordid spirit of penuriousness : nor yet that frugality, which saves merely to increase a hoard of wealth, al- ready too large ; but it is a prudent saving from the grasp of pro- fusion for the purpose of charity and beneficence. — Take the fol- lowing example : — Benevolus has both largeness of wealth and largeness of heart. Content with his present worldly store, he is resolved that his expenses shall about equal his income. He lives daily in the style of affluence, but never in the style of extravagance : and what he saves by frugality he bestows in charity. To the children of misfortune and want he is a friend and a father ; of every useful and laudable undertaking he is a bountiful encou- rager. Does Benevolus aspire to be a leader of fashion ? Yes. With all the weight of his influence he tries to make industry, prudent economy, and frugality fashionable ; to make the moral and Christian virtues fashionable ; to make it fashionable to behave well and to do good. Happy man ! Happy the children of such a father, and the community that has such a pattern ! As the richest families may be beggared by extravagance, much sooner will it consume one's all when that all is but little — and what avails the ruffle without the shirt ? Persons who are in small circumstances must prudently husband what they have, or it will quickly slip out of their hands. How unwise is it for them to make an ostentation of wealth which they do not pos- sess, or to pursue fashion " when she runs faster than they can follow." Many thousands, by standing on tiptoe, and reaching after things too high for them, have fallen flat to the ground. If you follow fashion beyond your real means, depend upon it, the skittish jade will throw you into the mire at last. ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 31 NUMBER VI. FOEBIDDING TO MAEEY. The injunction of celibacy, or of the monastic life, by the Romish Church, being directly in opposition to the order and or- dination of nature, has, more than any other single cause what- ever, produced a huge mass of evils, both moral and physical, in those countries that have been under the papal dominion ; evils too obvious to need pointing out, and too flagitious, some of them, to name. With prophetic reference, as we Protestants fully believe, to the doings of that corrupted church, St. Paul, in his second epistle to Timothy, expresses himself as follows : — " Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons." — And immediately after he particularizes the unnatural and monstrous rescript, " For bidding to marry" as of the same infernal family, or nearly allied with " the doc- trines of demons," aforementioned. 32 THE BRIEF REMARKER If, however, there were no " forbidding to marry " except in the Romish Church, we might hope that a full cure of the deadly evil is at hand. But this diabolical prohibition, — to wit, forbidding to marry, — has been enjoined and enforced even more extensively, in one other way, than it ever was by the canons of the Vatican. — Iwill explain my meaning by sketching a fragment of ancient history. The ancient Romans were republicans after their kind, and continued such for a considerable number of centuries. Though they were pagan idolaters, and their worship was deplorably cor- rupt, yet, previous to their imbibing the atheism of Epicurus, they generally believed in a future retribution of rewards and punishments : which belief operated so powerfully upon them, that they were truly exemplary in some few of their social virtues. In particular perjury was scarcely known among them, and infidelity in the connubial state was no less uncommon. The Roman republicans were plain men and women, accustomed to daily labor, and quite unaccustomed to finery of apparel or luxury of living. A Roman, of even noble blood, tilled his little field with his own hands, and was proud of tilling it with supe- rior industry and skill ; whilst his wife made it her chief ambi- tion to be an excellent housewife. While this state of things lasted, and a very long while it did last, the Romans were eager enough to get themselves wives. They married generally, and they married young ; for they thought, and well they might, that whoso found a wife, found a good thing, — a real help- meet, as well as a dear and faithful companion. And what is singularly remarkable, if true, it is recorded by a Roman histo- rian, that there had not been known in the city of Rome, a single ON THE WAYS OF MAN. 33 instance of divorcement during the whole space of five hundred years ; though the law had put it in the power of the husband to repudiate his wife almost at pleasure. Unfortunately for the Roman Republic, and more especially for the female part of it, a great and splendid event quite changed the morals, the taste, the habits, and the whole face of the country. One hundred and ninety years before the Chris- tian era, the Romans, for the first time, entered Asia with an army, which, under Scipio, defeated and conquered Antiochus the Great, of Syria : and from hence they brought home such a taste for the luxuries of the East, as promoted and hastened the ruin of their commonwealth ; and in no way more directly, than by a practical forbiddance of marriage. The Roman women, once so plain, frugal, and industrious, became enamored of the costly finery that was brought from the East. One of them, named Lollia Paulina, when dressed in all her jewels, is said to have worn the value of three hundred and thirty-two thousand pounds sterling. And though this was the most extraordinary instance of the time, yet it is reasonable to suppose that of the rest of the ladies, every one strove to get as near the top of the fashion as she could ; and that with all the females, who thought any thing of themselves, the rage was to be fine and fashionable. This new order of things, while it precipitated the republic down the abyss of ruin, brought marriage almost into disuse : insomuch that Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, finding among the men a general disinclination to marry, was fain to pass severe penal laws, to force them, as it were, into the marriage bonds. 