ay by a
store of savings as a breakwater against want, and make sure of a little
fund which may maintain them in old age, secure their self-respect, and
add to their personal comfort and social well-being. Thrift is not in
any way connected with avarice, usury, greed, or selfishness. It is, in
fact, the very reverse of these disgusting dispositions.

It means economy for the purpose of securing independence. Thrift
requires that money should be used and not abused--that it should be
honestly earned and economically employed--

"Not for to put it in a hedge,
Not for a train attendent,--
But for the glorious privilege
Of being Independent."

CHAPTER III.

IMPROVIDENCE.

"The man who has a wife and children has given hostages to
fortune."--_Lord Bacon._

"In all conditions and circumstances, well-being is in the power of
those who have power over themselves."--_J.J. Gurney_.

"Where is their common sense? Alas, what imprudence! Early marriages;
many children; poor-rates, and the workhouse.... They are born; they are
wretched; they die.... In no foreign country of far less civilization
than England, is there the same improvidence."--_Lord Lytton_.

"No man oppresses thee, O free and independent franchiser; but does not
this stupid pewter pot oppress thee? No son of Adam can bid thee come or
go, but this absurd pot of heavy-wet can and does, Thou art the thrall,
not of Cedric the Saxon, but of thy own brutal appetites, and this
accursed dish of liquor. And thou pratest of thy 'liberty,' thou entire
blockhead!"--_Carlyle_.

"Never did any publike misery
Rise of it selfe; God's plagues still grounded are
On common staines of our Humanity:
And to the flame, which ruineth Mankind,
Man gives the matter, or at least gives winde."--_Daniell_.

England is one of the richest countries in the world. Our merchants are
enterprising, our manufacturers are industrious, our labourers are
hard-working. There is an accumulation of wealth in the country to which
past times can offer no parallel. The Bank is gorged with gold. There
never was more food in the empire; there never was more money. There is
no end to our manufacturing productions, for the steam-engine never
tires. And yet notwithstanding all this wealth, there is an enormous
mass of poverty. Close alongside the Wealth of Nations, there gloomily
stalks the Misery of Nations,--luxurious ease resting upon a dark
background of wretchedness.

P