PUT MONEY IN THY PURSE HONESTLY.
"How a man uses money--makes it, saves it, and spends it--is perhaps
one of the best tests of practical wisdom," says Mr. Smiles. Although
money ought by no means to be regarded as a chief end of man's life,
neither is it a trifling matter, to be held in philosophic contempt,
representing, as it does, to so large an extent, the means of
physical comfort and social well-being. Indeed, some of the finest
qualities of human nature are intimately related to the right use of
money; such as generosity, honesty, justice, and self-sacrifice; as
well as the practical virtues of economy and providence. On the other
hand, there are their counterparts of avarice, fraud, injustice, and
selfishness, as displayed by the inordinate lovers of gain; and the
vices of thriftlessness, extravagance, and improvidence, on the part
of those who misuse and abuse the means entrusted to them. "So that,"
as is wisely observed by Henry Taylor in his thoughtful "Notes from
Life," "an right measure and manner of getting, saving, spending,
giving, taking, lending, borrowing, and bequeathing, would almost
argue a perfect man."
Comfort in worldly circumstances is a condition which every man is
justified in striving to attain by all worthy means. It secures that
physical satisfaction which is necessary for the culture of the
better part of his nature; and enables him to provide for those of
his own household, without which, says the apostle, a man is "worse
than an infidel." Nor ought the duty to be any the less pleasing to
us, that the respect which our fellow-men entertain for us in no
slight degree depends upon the manner in which we exercise the
opportunities which present themselves for our honorable advancement
in life. The very effort required to be made to succeed in life with
this object, is of itself an education: stimulating a man's sense of
self-respect, bringing out his practical qualities, and disciplining
him in the exercise of patience, perseverance, and such like virtues.
The provident and careful man must necessarily be a thoughtful man,
for he lives not merely for the present, but with provident forecast
makes arrangements for the future. He must also be a temperate man,
and exercise the virtue of self-denial, than which nothing is so much
calculated to give strength to the character. John Sterling says
truly, that "the worst education which teaches self-denial, is better
than the best which teaches everything else and not that." The Romans
rightly employed the same word (virtus) to designate courage, which
is in a physical sense what the other is in moral; the highest virtue
of all being victory over ourselves.
Hence the lesson of self-denial--the sacrificing of a present
gratification for a future good--is one of the last that is learnt.
Those classes which work the hardest might naturally be expected to
value the most the money which they earn. Yet the readiness with
which so many are accustomed to eat up and drink up their earnings as
they go, renders them, to a great extent, dependent upon the frugal.
Men of business are accustomed to quote the maxim that "Time is
money;" but it is more; the proper improvement of it is self-culture,
self-improvement, and growth of character. An hour wasted daily on
trifles or in indolence, would, if devoted to self-improvement, make
an ignorant man wise in a few years, and, employed in good works,
would make his life fruitful, and death a harvest of worthy deeds.
Fifteen minutes a day devoted to self-improvement, will be felt at
the end of the year. Good thoughts and carefully gathered experience
take up no room, and may be carried about as our companions
everywhere, without cost or encumbrance. An economical use of time is
the true mode of securing leisure: it enables us to get through
business and carry it forward, instead of being driven by it. On the
other hand, the miscalculation of time involves us in perpetual
hurry, confusion, and difficulties; and life becomes a mere shuffle
of expedients, usually followed by disaster. Nelson once said, "I owe
all my success in life to having been always a quarter of an hour
before my time."
Some take no thought of the value of money until they have come to an
end of it, and many do the same with their time. The hours are
allowed to flow by unemployed, and then when life is fast waning,
they bethink themselves of the duty of making a wiser use of it. But
the habit of listlessness and idleness may already have become
confirmed, and they are unable to break the bonds with which they
have permitted themselves to become bound. Lost wealth may be
replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by
temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
A proper consideration of the value of time will also inspire habits
of punctuality. "Punctuality," said Louis XIV, "is the politeness of
kings." It is also the duty of gentlemen, and the necessity of men of
business. Nothing begets confidence in a man sooner than the practice
of this virtue, and nothing shakes confidence sooner than the want of
it. He who holds to his appointment and does not keep you waiting for
him, shows that he has regard for your time as well as for his own.
Thus punctuality is one of the modes by which we testify our personal
respect for those whom we are called upon to meet in the business of
life. It is also conscientiousness, in a measure; for an appointment
is a contract, expressed or implied, and he who does not keep it
breaks faith, as well as dishonestly uses other people's time, and
thus inevitably loses character. We naturally come to the conclusion
that the person who is careless about time is careless about
business, and that he is not the one to be trusted with the
transaction of matters of importance. When Washington's secretary
excused himself for the lateness of his attendance and laid the blame
upon his watch, his master quietly said, "Then you must get another
watch, or I another secretary."
The person who is negligent of time and its employment is usually
found to be a general disturber of others' peace and serenity. It was
wittily said by Lord Chesterfield of the old Duke of Newcastle--"His
Grace loses an hour in the morning, and is looking for it all the
rest of the day." Everybody with whom the unpunctual man has to do is
thrown from time to time into a state of fever: he is systematically
late; regular only in his irregularity. He conducts his dawdling as
if upon system; arrives at his appointment after time; gets to the
railway station after the train has started; posts his letter when
the box has closed. Thus business is thrown into confusion, and
everybody concerned is put out of temper.
To secure independence, the practice of simple economy is all that is
necessary. Economy requires neither superior courage nor eminent
virtue; it is satisfied with ordinary energy, and the capacity of
average minds. Economy, at bottom, is but the spirit of order applied
in the administration of domestic affairs: it means management,
regularity, prudence, and the avoidance of waste. The spirit of
economy was expressed by our Divine Master in the words, "Gather up
the fragments that remain, so that nothing may be lost." His
omnipotence did not disdain the small things of life; and even while
revealing His infinite power to the multitude, he taught the pregnant
lesson of carefulness, of which all stand so much in need.
Economy also means to power of resisting present gratification for
the purpose of securing a future good, and in this light it
represents the ascendancy of reason over the animal instincts. It is
altogether different from penuriousness: for it is economy that can
always best afford to be generous. It does not make money an idol,
but regards it as a useful agent. As Dean Swift observes, "we must
carry money in the head, not in the heart." Economy may be styled the
daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the mother of
Liberty. It is eminently conservative--conservative of character, of
domestic happiness, and social well-being. It is, in short, the
exhibition of self-help in one of its best forms.
Francis Horner's father gave him this advice on entering life:
"Whilst I wish you to be comfortable in every respect, I cannot too
strongly inculcate economy. It is a necessary virtue to all; and
however the shallow part of mankind may despise it, it certainly
leads to independence, which is a grand object to every man of a high
spirit."
Every man ought to contrive to live within his means. This practice
is of the very essence of honesty. For if a man does not manage
honestly to live within his own means, he must necessarily be living
dishonestly upon the means of somebody else. Those who are careless
about personal expenditure, and consider merely their own
gratification, without regard for the comfort of others, generally
find out the real uses of money when it is too late. Though by nature
generous, these thriftless persons are often driven in the end to do
very shabby things. They waste their money as they do their time;
draw bills upon the future; anticipate their earnings; and are thus
under the necessity of dragging after them a load of debts and
obligations, which seriously affect their actions as free and
independent men.
It was a maxim of Lord Bacon, that when it was necessary to
economize, it was better to look after petty savings than to descend
to petty gettings. The loose cash which many persons throw away
uselessly, and worse, would often form a basis of fortune and
independence for life. These wasters are their own worst enemies,
though generally found amongst the ranks of those who rail a the
injustice of "the world." But if a man will not be his own friend,
how can he expect that others will be. Orderly men of moderate means
have always something left in their pockets to help others; whereas,
your prodigal and careless fellows who spend all, never find an
opportunity for helping anybody. It is poor economy, however, to be a
scrub. Narrow-mindedness in living and in dealing is generally short-
sighted, and leads to failure. Generosity and liberality, like
honesty, always prove the best policy after all. Though Jenkinson, in
the "Vicar of Wakefield," cheated his kind-hearted neighbor
Flamborough in one way or another every year, "Flamborough," said he,
"has been regularly growing in riches, while I have come to poverty
and a jail." And practical life abounds in cases of brilliant results
from a course of generous and honest policy.
The proverb says that "an empty bag cannot stand upright;" neither
can a man who is in debt. It is also difficult for a man who is in
debt to be truthful; hence, it is said that lying rides on debt's
back. The debtor has to frame excuses to his creditor for postponing
payment of the money he owes him, and probably also to contrive
falsehoods. It is easy enough for a man who will exercise a healthy
resolution, to avoid incurring the first obligation; but the facility
with which that has been incurred often becomes a temptation to a
second; and very soon the unfortunate borrower becomes so entangled
that no late exertion of industry can set him free. The first step in
debt is like the first step in falsehood; almost involving the
necessity of proceeding in the same course, debt following debt, as
lie follows lie. Haydon, the painter, dated his decline fro the day
on which he first borrowed money. He realized the truth of the
proverb, "Who goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing." The significant
entry in his diary is: "Here began debt and obligation, out of which
I have never been and never shall be extricated as long as I live."
His autobiography shows but too painfully how embarrassment in money
matters produces poignant distress of mind, utter incapacity for
work, and constantly recurring humiliations. The written advice which
he gave to a youth when entering the navy was as follows: "Never
purchase any enjoyment if it cannot be procured without borrowing of
others. Never borrow money; it is degrading. I do not say never lend,
but never lend if by lending you render yourself unable to pay what
you owe; but under any circumstances never borrow." Fichte, the poor
student, refused to accept even presents from his still poorer
parents.
Dr. Johnson held that early debt is ruin. His words on the subject
are weighty, and worthy of being held in remembrance. "Do not," said
he, "accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you
will find it a calamity. Poverty takes away so many means of doing
good, and produces so much inability to resist evil, both natural and
moral, that it is by all virtuous means to be avoided. . . . Let it
be your first care, then, not to be in any man's debt. Resolve not to
be poor; whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to
human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and makes some
virtues impracticable and others extremely difficult. Frugality is
not only the basis of quiet, but of beneficence. No man can help
others that wants help himself; we must have enough before we have to
spare."
It is the bounden duty of every man to look his affairs in the face,
and to keep an account of his incomings and outgoings in money
matters. The exercise of a little simple arithmetic in this way will
be found of great value. Prudence requires that we shall pitch our
scale of living a degree below our means, rather than up to them. But
this can only be done by carrying out faithfully a plan of living by
which both ends may be made to meet. John Locke strongly advised this
course: "Nothing," said he, "is likelier to keep a man within compass
than having constantly before his eyes the state of his affairs in a
regular course of account." The Duke of Wellington kept an accurate
detailed account of all the moneys received and expended by him. "I
make a point," said he to Mr. Gleig, "of paying my own bills, and I
advise every one to do the same; formerly I used to trust a
confidential servant to pay them, but I was cured of that folly by
receiving one morning, to my great surprise, duns of a year or two's
standing. The fellow had speculated with my money, and left my bills
unpaid." Talking of debt, his remark was, "It makes a slave of a man.
I have often known what it was to be in want of money, but I never
got into debt." Washington was as particular as Wellington was, in
matters of business detail; and it is a remarkable fact, that he did
not disdain to scrutinize the smallest outgoings of his household--
determined as he was to live honestly within his means--even when
holding the high office of President of the United States.
There is a dreadful ambition abroad for being "genteel." We keep up
appearances, too often at the expense of honesty; and though we may
not be rich yet we must seem to be so. We must be "respectable,"
though only in the meanest sense--in mere vulgar outward show. We
have not the courage to go patiently onward in the condition of life
in which it has pleased God to call us; but must needs live in some
fashionable state to which we ridiculously please to call ourselves,
and to gratify the vanity of that unsubstantial genteel world of
which we form a part. There is a constant struggle and pressure for
front streets in the social amphitheatre; in the midst of which all
noble self-denying resolve is trodden down, and many fine natures are
inevitably crushed to death. What waste, what misery, what bankruptcy
come from all this ambition to dazzle others with the glare of
apparent worldly success, we need not describe.
The young man, as he passes through life, advances through a long
line of tempters ranged on either side of him; and the inevitable
effect of yielding is degradation in a greater or a less degree.
Contact with them tends insensibly to draw away from him some portion
of the divine electric element with which his nature is charged; and
his only mode of resisting them is to utter and act out his "No"
manfully and resolutely. He must decide at once, not waiting to
deliberate and balance reasons; for the youth, like "the woman who
deliberates, is lost." Many deliberate, without deciding; but "not to
resolve, _is_ to resolve." A perfect knowledge of man is in the
prayer, "Lead us not into temptation." But temptation will come to
try the young man's strength; and once yielded to, the power to
resist grows weaker and weaker. Yield once, and an element of virtue
has gone. Resist manfully, and the first decision will give strength
for life; repeated it will become a habit. It is in the outworks of
the habits formed in early life that the real strength of the defense
must lie; for it has been wisely ordained that the machinery of moral
existence should be carried on principally through the medium of the
habits, so as to save the wear and tear of the great principles
within. It is good habits which insinuate themselves into the
thousand inconsiderable acts of life, that really constitute by far
the greater part of man's moral conduct.
Many popular books have been written for the purpose of communicating
to the public the grand secret of making money. But there is no
secret whatever about it, as the proverbs of every nation abundantly
testify. "Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of
themselves." "Diligence is the mother of good luck." "No pains, no
gains." "No sweat, no sweet." "Work and thou shalt have." "The world
is his who has patience and industry." "Better go to bed supperless
than rise in debt." Such are specimens of the proverbial philosophy,
embodying the hoarded experience of many generations, as to the best
means of thriving in the world. They were current in people's mouths
long before books were invented; and like other popular proverbs they
were the first codes of popular morals. Moreover, they have stood the
test of time, and the experience of every day still bears witness to
their accuracy, force, and soundness. The Proverbs of Solomon are
full of wisdom as to the force of industry, and the use and abuse of
money: "He that is slothful in work is brother to him that is a great
waster." "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be
wise." Poverty, says the preacher, shall come upon the idler, "as one
that traveleth, and want as an armed man;" but of the industrious and
upright, "the hand of the diligent maketh rich." "the drunkard and
the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man
with rags." "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall
stand before kings." But above all, "It is better to get wisdom than
gold; for wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things that may
be desired are not to be compared to it."
Simple industry and thrift will go far toward making any person of
ordinary working faculty comparatively independent in his means. Even
a working man may be so, provided he will carefully husband his
resources, and watch the little outlets of useless expenditure. A
penny is a very small matter, yet the comfort of thousands of
families depends upon the proper spending and saving of pennies. If a
man allows the little pennies, the results of his hard work, to slip
out of his fingers--some to the beer-shop, some this way and some
that--he will find that his life is little raised above one of mere
animal drudgery. On the other hand, if he take care of the pennies--
putting some weekly into a benefit society or an insurance fund,
others into a savings' bank, and confiding the rest to his wife to be
carefully laid out, with a view to the comfortable maintenance and
education of his family--he will soon find that this attention to
small matters will abundantly repay him, in increasing means, growing
comfort at home, and a mind comparatively free from fears as to the
future. And if a working man have high ambition and possess richness
in spirit--a kind of wealth which far transcends all mere worldly
possessions--he may not help himself, but be a profitable helper of
others in his path through life.
While credit is the soul of trade, improperly used it is the death of
business. No man should run into debt for a luxury, and every prudent
man will have money in his purse for life's necessities. Remember,
the man who is in debt without seeing his way out is a slave.
Speaking of this Jacob Abbott says:
"There is, perhaps, nothing which so grinds the human soul, and
produces such an insupportable burden of wretchedness and
despondency, as pecuniary pressure. Nothing more frequently drives
men to suicide; and there is, perhaps, no danger to which men in an
active and enterprising community are more exposed. Almost all are
eagerly reaching forward to a station in life a little above what
they can well afford, or struggling to do a business a little more
extensive than they have capital or steady credit for; and thus they
keep, all through life, _just above_ their means--and just above, no
matter by how small an excess, is inevitable misery.
"Be sure, then, if your aim is happiness, to bring down, at all
hazards, your style of living, and your responsibilities of business,
to such a point that you shall easily be able to reach it. Do this, I
say, at all hazards. If you cannot have money enough for your purpose
in a house with two rooms, take a house with one. It is your only
chance for happiness. For there is such a thing as happiness in a
single room, with plain furniture and simple fare; but there is no
such thing as happiness with responsibilities which cannot be met,
and debts increasing without any prospect of their discharge."
"After I had earned my first thousand dollars by the hardest kind of
work," said Commodore Vanderbilt, "I felt richer and happier than
when I had my first million. I was out of debt, every dollar was
honestly mine, and I saw my way to success."