wback upon him when it
comes.

Nay, this unhappy and dirty part is often attended with worse
consequences still; for this expense coming upon him while he is but a
servant, and while his portion, or whatever it is to be called, is not
yet come into his hand, he is driven to terrible exigencies to supply
this expense. If his circumstances are mean, and his trade mean, he is
frequently driven to wrong his master, and rob his shop or his till for
money, if he can come at it: and this, as it begins in madness,
generally ends in destruction; for often he is discovered, exposed, and
perhaps punished, and so the man is undone before he begins. If his
circumstances are good, and he has friends that are able, and
expectations that are considerable, then his expense is still the
greater, and ways and means are found out, or at least looked for, to
supply the expense, and conceal the fact, that his friends may not know
it, till he has gotten the blessing he expects into his hands, and is
put in a way to stand upon his own legs; and then it comes out, with a
great many grieving aggravations to a parent to find himself tricked and
defeated in the expectations of his son's marrying handsomely, and to
his advantage; instead of which, he is obliged to receive a dish-clout
for a daughter-in-law, and see his family propagated by a race of
beggars, and yet perhaps as haughty, as insolent, and as expensive, as
if she had blessed the family with a lady of fortune, and brought a fund
with her to have supported the charge of her posterity.

When this happens, the poor young man's case is really deplorable.
Before he is out of his time, he is obliged to borrow of friends, if he
has any, on pretence his father does not make him a sufficient
allowance, or he trenches upon his master's cash, which perhaps, he
being the eldest apprentice, is in his hands; and this he does,
depending, that when he is out of his time, and his father gives him
wherewith to set up, he will make good the deficiency; and all this
happens accordingly so that his reputation as to his master is
preserved, and he comes off clear as to dishonesty in his trust.

But what a sad chasm does it make in his fortune! I knew a certain young
tradesman, whose father, knowing nothing of his son's measures, gave him
L2000 to set up with, straining himself to the utmost for the well
introducing his son into the world; but who, when he came to set up,
having near a year before married