_It will do for the present._
This common saying does as much mischief in society, as _rum_ or a
_pestilence_. If I hear a man, whether a farmer, a mechanic, or any
other person, often repeat that saying, and appear to act from the
opinion, that _it will do for the present_, I rely on it he is a
sloven, a drone, or something worse. I never knew such a man thrive.
A young man setting out in life, is in haste to be married. He
wants a house to live in, but is not fully able to build one. Yet
his pride requires a large showy house. At last, between poverty
and pride, he determines to build a large house, but not to finish
it till he is _more able_. He sets up a large two story house,
with four rooms in a story--he covers it and paints it: this is
a showy house--his pride exults to see passengers stare at his
elegant house: but though _pride_ governs the _outside_, _poverty_
reigns _within_--he can finish but two rooms, half finish one or
two more--and lay a loose floor above, to spread his corn upon:
this elegant mansion house then is a granary--a corn house: the
man and a litter of children below--and rats and mice above: but
the man says, _it will do for the present_. True, but the man has
but twenty or thirty acres of land, or an indifferent trade--his
family grows faster than his income--he is not able to finish his
house--the covering soon decays and admits water--the house falls to
pieces--the man is forced _poor_ into the wilderness, or he and his
children loiter about, dependant on the neighbours for subsistence
by day labour.
I know one of these _do-for-the-present-farmers_, who never
effectually repairs his fences; but when a breach is made, he fills
it with a bush that a sheep may remove: if a rail is broke, and
another is not at hand, he takes the next billet of wood, inserts
one end into the post, and ties up the other with elm or hickory
bark--he says, _this will do for the present_. His cattle learn to
be unruly--to remedy the evil, fetters, shackles, clogs, yokes, and
what he calls _pokes_, are invented--and his cattle and horses are
doomed to hobble about their pasture with a hundred weight of wood
or iron machines upon their feet and necks. The man himself, in
two years, spends time enough in patching up his fences and making
fetters, to make a good effectual fence round his whole farm, which
would want very little repair in twenty years.
In family affairs, these _do-for-the-present folks_ double their
necessary labour. They labour hard to put things _out of order_,
and then it requires nearly the same work to put them into order
again. A man uses an axe, a hoe, a spade, and throws it down where
he uses it; instead of putting it in its proper place, under cover.
Exposed to the weather, tools do not last more than half so long,
as when kept housed; but this is not all: a sloven leaves the tool
where he last used it--or throws it down any where at random: in a
few days he wants it again--he has forgot where he left it--he goes
to look for it--he spends perhaps half an hour in search of it, or
walks a distance to get it: this time is lost, for it breaks in upon
some other business--the loss of this small portion of time appears
trifling; but slovens and sluts incur such losses every day; and
the loss of these little scraps of time determine a man's fortune.
Let the Prompter make a little calculation: a farmer, whose family
expends one hundred pounds a year, if he can clear ten pounds a year
is a thriving man. In order to get his one hundred and ten pounds,
suppose he labours ten hours a day: in this case, if he loses an
_hour_ every day, in repairing the carelessness of the day before
(and every sloven and slut loses more time than this, every day,
for want of care and order) he loses a _tenth_ part of his time--a
_tenth_ part of his income--this is _eleven pounds_. Such a man
cannot thrive--he must grow poorer, for want of _care_, of _order_,
of _method_.
So it is with a woman. A neat woman who does business thoroughly,
keeps things _in order_, with about _half the labour_ that a slut
employs who keeps things for ever _out of order_. If a pail or
kettle be used, it is directly made clean, fit for other uses, and
put in its place. When it is wanted, it is ready. But a slut uses
an article and leaves it _any where_, dirty, unfit for use another
time: by and by it is wanted, and cannot be found--"Moll, where
did you leave the kettle?" "I han't had the kettle, Nab had it
last"--"Nab, did you have the kettle?" "Yes, but it is dirty." So
the kettle is found, but it is a half hour's work to fit it for the
purpose required; in the mean time, the necessary business must lie
by. Yet this woman says, when she does any thing, _it will do for
the present_.
I have only to add, that I went to church, on a late cold Sunday,
when a neighbouring clergyman officiated. He had spoken to his
_fifteenthly_, when the clock struck _one_. Every man was shivering
with the cold, and shuffling his feet--the parson took the hint, and
broke off with "_this will do for the present_."