afford us good counsel and advice, and are often of unspeakable service to us by this and other means. Ill chosen friends often occasion unspeakable injury by bad counsels and advice, and by other means. Thousands have been misled by them to their lasting regret, and often to their irrecoverable ruin. Well chosen friends co-operate with us and assist us as far as may be in all our honorable and useful pursuits. Such co-operation is necessary and useful to all men; and to those who aspire at accomplishing any thing considerable, it is of indispensable necessity. III chosen friends are often indisposed to afford us the help we need in the accomplishment of noble schemes, and are in other cases incapable of affording it; but they are principally injurious on account of their pernicious influences on our characters. A man is known by his friends. This happens on two accounts; first, because men naturally prefer friends who have most sympathy with them in their principles and pursuits; and, secondly, because their characters are naturally moulded by association into a substantial conformity to the character of their friends.

§ 527. A good name is better than precious ointment. Honor and respect is one of the most useful objects of human pursuit; and is as rational an object of pursuit as wealth, or any sublunary good. Some affect to despise it, and think it altogether derogatory to their character to care what their fellow-men think of them. They might as well despise property, or health, and be indifferent whether they had food, clothing, and other enjoyments, or were in want of all these objects.

The good opinion of men is an acquisition of the most beneficial kind, and is proper to be prosecuted by all lawful means. In prosecuting this pursuit, prudence leads us not only to avoid what is really evil, but what has the appearance of being evil. There are many conditions in which we may be tempted to indulge our tastes in modes which are perfectly right, but which in the opinions of others are wrong. Such indulgences may be entirely unnecessary; we may abstain from them and suffer no sensible diminution of our happiness; and if we pursue them we do it at the expense of a perceptible loss of character. In all such cases prudence dictates entire abstinence. A prudent regard for one's character will not allow him to venture on

pleasures of questionable morality and propriety, or which in any degree endanger his good name with his fellow-men.

§ 528. The highest sphere for the exercise of prudence is that of religion. The human soul has interests of the greatest magnitude involved in the love and worship of God. It has a world of eternal happiness to gain, and one of eternal misery to shun; and in comparison with eternal life, all the interests of this life dwindle into insignificance. These eternal interests may be endangered by imprudence. It is the office of prudence to avoid any thing which may endanger our eternal happiness or impair those virtues which tend to qualify us for that blessed state. Prudence forbids us to defer repentance to a future and uncertain period, and requires us to repent now. It forbids us to defer the exercise of christian faith, or any part of our religious duty, on the ground that such procrastination endangers our eternal happiness and exposes us to eternal misery; and that even if we are not finally lost, sin will certainly be to our disadvantage, and generally to the disadvantage of others.

Prudence is an essential element in the character of every wise and good man; and is necessary to our safety and success in all pursuits and in all conditions. Without it persons cannot be good servants, good friends, good companions, or useful men and women. A single act of imprudence is often the occasion of the greatest calamities; and by it a man may lose a hand, an eye, his health, his property, his character, his life, his friends, his soul. Prudence is required to be in continual exercise in order to the preservation and security of our happiness. The necessity of it is founded in the nature of things, and the general arrangements of Divine Providence.

Prudence is an intellectual habit, and is to be cultivated like other habits by practice; and the cultivation of it ought to be early commenced, and steadily prosecuted, till it is fully established. It is easiest cultivated in early life; and when habits of imprudence are fully established it is diffi cult to correct them. Still they may be corrected at any any period of life, and reformation in this respect, as in others, ought to be vigorously prosecuted at all periods of life. Many learn to cultivate prudence by the experience of great evils from imprudences. This lesson, like other parts of practical wisdom, is impressively taught by the ex

perience of all men; in the case of the prudent, by experience of the benefits of prudence, and the case of the imprudent, by experience of the evils of imprudence. Imprudence is both an infirmity and a vice. It is an infirmity not to appreciate future evils, and a sin not to avoid them. Future evils are as really evils as if they were present.

CHAPTER IV.

NATURE AND OFFICE OF INDUSTRY.

§ 529. Industry is a disposition to practice habitual diligence in useful employments. The pursuits of industry are numerous and diversified; and comprehend agriculture, manufactures, commerce, the learned professions of Medicine, Law, and Divinity, the practice of the Fine Arts, domestic service, and other similar employments. The leading branches of industry admit of numerous divisions and sub-divisions. The manufactures are divided into the manufacture of cotton, woollen, and silk goods, the mechanic arts, and so on; and each of these general branches is sub-divided into numerous subordinate ones.

The object of industry is production; and the things produced are denominated products. The value of products depends upon their subserviency to human happiness. Some are useful for food and clothing, others defend us from the inclemencies of the weather or other injurious agents, others still, gratify our taste and contribute in higher modes to our satisfaction. Human industry is an indispensable agent in the production of those things on which the happiness of civilized society depends. Other agents, such as land, water power, and minerals concur; but human industry is necessary to make them effectual.

§ 530. Wealth consists chiefly in the products of industry, and to a great extent in the products of the industry of the possessor. A large proportion of the rich men of the world have been the makers of their own fortunes; and a similar proportion of those possessed of only a competence, have made that competence, by prosecuting some of the branches of industry. Commercial industry creates wealth by a sys

tem of exchanges; domestic service subserves the convenience and happiness of families, and receives a corresponding compensation; the learned professions have a similar subserviency to men's happiness and welfare, and entitles the persons who practice them to compensations, by means of which they may live and support families in comfort.

The exercise of industry involves three things:

1. Determining on products to be created; 2. Determining on the means for ceating them; 3. And actually creating products.

Industry is opposed to indolence. It may be practiced in every branch of human pursuits, and in every department of human activity; and in all conditions it subserves the good both of the subject and others. The industrious farmer and mechanic will acquire the means of enjoyment in a degree proportionable to their industry. The industrious student and professional man, other things being equal, will have degrees of success and prosperity in their pursuits proportionable to their industry. The industrious usually rise to wealth and influence; and the indolent are seldom wealthy or influential. Men are dependent on industry for the necessaries and luxuries of civilized society. These objects require industry for their production and attainment, and cannot in ordinary cases be secured by other means.

§ 531. Industry is an acquired virtue, and the acquisition of it may be commenced with advantage in childhood. Children are naturally active; and only require proper direction and encouragement to be made industrious. The proper means for cultivating industry in the case of children is early to put them both to the performance of useful labors, and to the prosecution of useful studies. Neither their labors nor studies ought to be unremitting, but they ought to be regular; and some parts of every day ought to be statedly devoted to them. Most of the indolence which prevails among men in their later years, had its origin in an indolent childhood; and an industrious childhood is generally followed by permanent habits of industry. Industry implies constancy, and activity in our pursuits. To be industrious we must devote a due proportion of time to our pursuits, and be actively engaged during that time. The proportion of time proper to be devoted to business is different in different cases and in different branches of busi

ness.

It varies from 8 to 12 hours daily, and is generally

determined by the custom. Some may exceed the ordinary proportion of time without injury, but it is not generally safe to go much beyond it.

Activity in the pursuits of industry is as necessary to success as the regular appropriation of suitable portions of time to such pursuits. The amount of labor performed in a given time, other things being equal, is in proportion to the activity of the laborer. Some perform twice the amount of labor performed by others in the same time by means of greater activity. Industry involves, therefore, the two elements of time and activity, both of which ought to be devoted to production to the greatest extent practicable.

Habits of activity are capable of cultivation to an indefinite extent. It is desirable to be active as well as diligent. The cultivation of activity is easiest in childhood and youth, but it is practicable to some extent till the decline of the human faculties on account of age. The proper character of industry involves, in many cases, a high degree of wisdom and prudence, and is essential to its usefulness. By being bestowed on improper objects, industry may be less useful than it might otherwise be, entirely useless or actually hurtful; and with equal industry the prosperity of men is greatly diversified on account of the more or less favorable direction of their industry.

§ 532. Solomon inculcates industry and reproves indolence, in the most explicit manner. Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meal in summer, and gathereth her food in harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard ? When wilt thou arise from thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little of the folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and thy want as an armed man.-Prov. vi. 6-11.

The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.-Prov. xiii. 4. The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold, therefore he shall beg in harvest and have nothing.—Prov. xx. 4. These lessons from the wisest of men deserve our serious attention; and are confirmed by the experience of all ages.

Well directed industry is a fundamental source of individual and national prosperity and happiness; and besides, it is good in itself. We are made for action; and appropriate