greater than her incomes._

Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not have so much
cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable families;
for, as Poor Dick says,--

Women and wine, game and deceit,
Make the wealth small and the wants great.

And farther, _What maintains one vice would bring up two children._ You
may think, perhaps, that a _little_ tea, or a _little_ punch now and
then; a diet a _little_ more mostly; clothes a _little_ more finer; and
a _little_ more entertainment now and then, can be no great matter; but
remember what Poor Richard says, _Many a little makes a mickle_; and
further, _Beware of little expenses_; _A small leak will sink a great
ship_; and again,--

Who dainties love, shall beggars prove;

and moreover, _Fools make feasts and wise men eat them_.

Here are you all got together at this vendue of fineries knick-knacks.
You call them _goods_; but if you do not take care, they will prove
evils to some of you. You expect they will be sold cheap, and perhaps
they may for less than they cost; but, if you have no occasion for
them, they must be _dear_ to you. Remember what Poor Richard says:
_Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy
necessaries._ And again, _At a great pennyworth, pause a while._ He
means, that perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, and not real; or
the bargain by straitening thee in thy business, may do thee more harm
than good. For in another place he says, _Many have been ruined by
buying good pennyworths._

Again, Poor Richard says, _'Tis foolish to lay out money in a purchase
of repentance_; and yet this folly is practiced every day at vendues
for want of minding the _Almanac_.

_Wise men_, as Poor Richard says, _learn by others' harms_; _Fools
scarcely by their own_; but _Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula
cautum._[4] Many a one for the sake of finery on the back, has gone
with a hungry belly, and half-starved their families. _Silks and
satins, scarlets and velvets_, as Poor Richard says, _put out the
kitchen fire_. These are not the necessaries of life; they can scarcely
be called the conveniences; and yet, only because they look pretty, how
many _want_ to have them! The artificial wants of mankind thus become
more numerous than the natural; and, as Poor Dick says, _For one_ poor
_person there are a hundred_ indigent.

[4] He's a lucky fellow who is made prudent by other men's
perils.