and for all the other unnecessary expenses; it is
injurious to health, and must be so. Every bottle of wine that is drank
contains a portion of _spirit_, to say nothing of other drugs still
more poisonous; and of all friends to the doctors, alcoholic drinks are
the greatest. It is nearly the same, however, with strong tea and
coffee. But what adds to the folly and wickedness of using these
drinks, the parties themselves do not always drink them by _choice_;
and hardly ever because they believe they are useful;--but from mere
ostentation, or the fear of being thought either _rigid_ or _stingy_.
At this very moment, thousands of families daily use some half a dozen
drinks, _besides the best_, because if they drank water only, they
might not be regarded as genteel; or might be suspected of poverty. And
thus they waste their property and their health.

Poverty frequently arises from the very virtues of the impoverished
parties. Not so frequently, I admit, as from vice, folly, and
indiscretion; but still very frequently. And as it is according to
scripture not to 'despise the poor, _because_ he is poor,' so we ought
not to honor the rich merely because he is rich. The true way is to
take a fair survey of the character of a man as exhibited in his
conduct; and to respect him, or otherwise, according to a due estimate
of that character.

Few countries exhibit more of those fatal terminations of life, called
suicides, than _this_. Many of these unnatural crimes arise from an
unreasonable estimate of the evils of poverty. Their victims, it is
true, may be called insane; but their insanity almost always arises
from the dread of poverty. Not, indeed, from the dread of the want of
means for sustaining life, or even _decent_ living; but from the dread
of being thought or known to be poor;--from the dread of what is called
falling in the scale of society.[8]

Viewed in its true light, what is there in poverty that can tempt a man
to take away his own life? He is the same man that he was before; he
has the same body and the same mind. Suppose he can foresee an
alteration in his _dress_ or his _diet_, should he kill himself on that
account? Are these all the things that a man wishes to live for?

I do not deny that we ought to take care of our means, use them
prudently and sparingly, and keep our expenses always within the limits
of our income, be that what it may. One of the effectual means of doing
this, is to purchase with ready