y him, and a pleasant
view of the principles which he deemed it important to be inculcated.

"I have this morning sent Mr. Thaxter with my two sons to Leyden, there
to take up their residence for some time, and there to pursue their
studies of Latin and Greek under the excellent masters, and there to
attend lectures of the celebrated professors in that University. It is
much cheaper there than here. The air is infinitely purer, and the company
and conversation are better. It is perhaps as learned a University as any
in Europe.

"I should not wish to have children educated in the common schools of this
country, where a littleness of soul is notorious. The masters are mean
spirited wretches, pinching, kicking, and boxing the children upon every
turn. There is, besides, a general littleness, arising from the incessant
contemplation of stivers and doits, which pervades the whole people.

"Frugality and industry are virtues everywhere, but avarice and stinginess
are not frugality. The Dutch say, that without a habit of thinking of
every doit before you spend it, no man can be a good merchant, or conduct
trade with success.

"This, I believe, is a just maxim in general; but I would never wish to
see a son of mine govern himself by it. It is the sure and certain way for
an industrious man to be rich. It is the only possible way for a merchant
to become the first merchant, or the richest man in the place. But this is
an object that I hope none of my children will ever aim at. It is indeed
true everywhere, that those who attend to small expenses are always rich.

"I would have my children attend to doits and farthings as devoutly as
the merest Dutchman upon earth, if such attention was necessary to support
their independence. A man who discovers a disposition and a design to be
independent, seldom succeeds. A jealousy arises against him. The tyrants
are alarmed on the one side, lest he should oppose them: the slaves are
alarmed on the other, lest he should expose their servility. The cry from
all quarters is, 'He is the proudest man in the world: He cannot bear to
be under obligation.'

"I never in my life observed anyone endeavoring to lay me under particular
obligation to him, but I suspected he had a design to make me his
dependent, and to have claims upon my gratitude. This I should have no
objection to, because gratitude is always in one's power. But the danger
is, that men will expect and require more of us than honor