before
children are acquainted with the real and comparative value of any of
these commodities, it is surely imprudent to trust them with money. As
to the idea that children may be charitable and generous in the
disposal of money, we have expressed our sentiments fully upon this
subject already.[107] We are, however, sensible that when children are
sent to any school, it is advisable to supply them with pocket-money
enough to put them upon an equal footing with their companions;
otherwise, we might run the hazard of inducing worse faults than
extravagance--meanness, or envy.

Young people who are educated at home should, as much as possible, be
educated to take a family interest in all the domestic expenses.
Parental reserve in money matters is extremely impolitic; as Mr. Locke
judiciously observes, that a father, who wraps his affairs up in
mystery, and who "views his son with jealous eyes," as a person who is
to begin _to live_ when he dies, _must_ make him an enemy by treating
him as such. A frank simplicity and cordial dependence upon the
integrity and upon the sympathy of their children, will ensure to
parents their disinterested friendship. Ignorance is always more to be
dreaded than knowledge. Young people, who are absolutely ignorant of
affairs, who have no idea of the relative expense of different modes
of living, and of the various wants of a family, are apt to be
extremely unreasonable in the imaginary disposal of their parent's
fortune; they confine their view merely to their own expenses. "I
_only_ spend such a sum," they say, "and surely that is nothing to my
father's income." They consider only the absolute amount of what they
spend; they cannot compare it with the number of other expenses which
are necessary for the rest of the family: they do not know these,
therefore they cannot perceive the proportion which it is reasonable
that their expenditure should bear to the whole. Mrs. D'Arblay, in one
of her excellent novels, has given a striking picture of the ignorance
in which young women sometimes leave their father's house, and begin
to manage in life for themselves, without knowing any thing of the
_powers_ of money. Camilla's imprudence must chiefly be ascribed to
her ignorance. Young women should be accustomed to keep the family
accounts, and their arithmetic should not be merely a speculative
science; they should learn the price of all necessaries, and of all
luxuries; they should learn what luxuri