e sows he reaps. By diligence and self-command let him put
the bread he eats at his own disposal, that he may not stand in bitter
and false relations to other men; for the best good of wealth is
freedom. Let him practise the minor virtues. How much of human life is
lost in waiting! let him not make his fellow-creatures wait. How many
words and promises are promises of conversation! Let his be words of
fate. When he sees a folded and sealed scrap of paper float round the
globe in a pine ship and come safe to the eye for which it was written,
amidst a swarming population, let him likewise feel the admonition to
integrate his being across all these distracting forces, and keep a
slender human word among the storms, distances and accidents that drive
us hither and thither, and, by persistency, make the paltry force of
one man reappear to redeem its pledge after months and years in the most
distant climates.

We must not try to write the laws of any one virtue, looking at that
only. Human nature loves no contradictions, but is symmetrical. The
prudence which secures an outward well-being is not to be studied by one
set of men, whilst heroism and holiness are studied by another, but they
are reconcilable. Prudence concerns the present time, persons, property
and existing forms. But as every fact hath its roots in the soul, and
if the soul were changed, would cease to be, or would become some other
thing,--the proper administration of outward things will always rest
on a just apprehension of their cause and origin; that is, the good
man will be the wise man, and the single-hearted the politic man. Every
violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is
a stab at the health of human society. On the most profitable lie the
course of events presently lays a destructive tax; whilst frankness
invites frankness, puts the parties on a convenient footing and makes
their business a friendship. Trust men and they will be true to you;
treat them greatly and they will show themselves great, though they make
an exception in your favor to all their rules of trade.

So, in regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not
consist in evasion or in flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk
in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself
up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension,
and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless. The
Latin proverb sa