Young men are apt to be fond of _speculation_. This propensity is very
early developed--first in the family--and afterwards at the school. By
_speculation_, I mean the purchasing of something which you do not want
for use, solely with a view to sell it again at a large profit; but on
the sale of which there is a hazard.
When purchases of this sort are made with the person's own cash, they
are not so unreasonable, but when they are made by one who is deeply
indebted to his fellow beings, or with money borrowed for the purpose,
it is not a whit better than gambling, let the practice be defended by
whom it may: and has been in every country, especially in this, a
fruitful source of poverty, misery, and suicide. Grant that this
species of gambling has arisen from the facility of obtaining the
fictitious means of making the purchase, still it is not the less
necessary that I beseech you not to practise it, and if engaged in it
already, to disentangle yourself as soon as you can. Your life, while
thus engaged, is that of a gamester--call it by what smoother name you
may. It is a life of constant anxiety, desire to overreach, and general
gloom; enlivened now and then, by a gleam of hope or of success. Even
that success is sure to lead to farther adventures; till at last, a
thousand to one, that your fate is that of 'the pitcher to the well.'
The great temptation to this, as well as to every other species of
gambling, is, the _success of the few_. As young men, who crowd to the
army in search of rank and renown, never look into the ditch that holds
their slaughtered companions, but have their eye constantly fixed on
the commander-in-chief; and as each of them belongs to the _same
profession_, and is sure to be conscious that he has equal merit, every
one dreams himself the suitable successor of him who is surrounded with
_aides-de-camp_, and who moves battalions and columns by his nod;--so
with the rising generation of 'speculators.' They see those whom they
suppose nature and good laws made to black shoes, or sweep chimneys or
streets, rolling in carriages, or sitting in palaces, surrounded by
servants or slaves; and they can see no earthly reason why they should
not all do the same. They forget the thousands, and tens of thousands,
who in making the attempt, have reduced themselves to beggary.