less lifetime.

Money represents a multitude of objects without value, or without real
utility; but it also represents something much more precious,--and that
is independence. In this light it is of great moral importance.

As a guarantee of independence, the modest and plebeian quality of
economy is at once ennobled and raised to the rank of one of the most
meritorious of virtues. "Never treat money affairs with levity," said
Bulwer; "Money is Character." Some of man's best qualities depend upon
the right use of money,--such as his generosity, benevolence, justice,
honesty, and forethought. Many of his worst qualities also originate in
the bad use of money,--such as greed, miserliness, injustice,
extravagance, and improvidence.

No class ever accomplished anything that lived from hand to mouth.
People who spend all that they earn, are ever hanging on the brink of
destitution. They must necessarily be weak and impotent--the slaves of
time and circumstance. They keep themselves poor. They lose
self-respect, as well as the respect of others. It is impossible that
they can be free and independent. To be thriftless, is enough to deprive
one of all manly spirit and virtue.

But a man with something saved, no matter how little, is in a different
position. The little capital he has stored up, is always a source of
power. He is no longer the sport of time and fate. He can boldly look
the world in the face. He is, in a manner, his own master. He can
dictate his own terms. He can neither be bought nor sold. He can look
forward with cheerfulness to an old age of comfort and happiness.

As men become wise and thoughtful, they generally become provident and
frugal. A thoughtless man, like a savage, spends as he gets, thinking
nothing of to-morrow, of the time of adversity, or of the claims of
those whom he has made dependent on him. But a wise man thinks of the
future; he prepares in good time for the evil day that may come upon him
and his family; and he provides carefully for those who are near and
dear to him.

What a serious responsibility does the man incur who marries! Not many
seriously think, of this responsibility. Perhaps this is wisely ordered.
For, much serious thinking might end in the avoidance of married life
and its responsibilities. But, once married, a man ought forthwith to
determine that, so far as his own efforts are concerned, want shall
never enter his household; and that his children shall not, in the e