advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge; it is a good port
and a good foundation. No Neva marshes to be filled; though you must
everywhere build on piles of your own driving. It is said that a
flood-tide, with a westerly wind, and ice in the Neva, would sweep St.
Petersburg from the face of the earth.

As this business was to be entered into without the usual capital, it
may not be easy to conjecture where those means, that will still be
indispensable to every such undertaking, were to be obtained. As for
Clothing, to come at once to the practical part of the question, perhaps
we are led oftener by the love of novelty and a regard for the opinions
of men, in procuring it, than by a true utility. Let him who has work to
do recollect that the object of clothing is, first, to retain the vital
heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to cover nakedness, and
he may judge how much of any necessary or important work may be
accomplished without adding to his wardrobe. Kings and queens who wear
a suit but once, though made by some tailor or dressmaker to their
majesties, cannot know the comfort of wearing a suit that fits. They are
no better than wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on. Every day our
garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of
the wearer's character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such
delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our bodies.
No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his
clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have
fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a
sound conscience. But even if the rent is not mended, perhaps the worst
vice betrayed is improvidence. I sometimes try my acquaintances by such
tests as this--Who could wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over
the knee? Most behave as if they believed that their prospects for life
would be ruined if they should do it. It would be easier for them to
hobble to town with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon. Often if
an accident happens to a gentleman's legs, they can be mended; but if a
similar accident happens to the legs of his pantaloons, there is no help
for it; for he considers, not what is truly respectable, but what is
respected. We know but few men, a great many coats and breeches. Dress
a scarecrow in your last shift, you standing shiftless by, who would not
soonest salute t