: Essays 1 
gant and ruin themselves. Law cannot prevent this; 
and perhaps it is not always an evil to the pub- 
lic. A shilling spent idly by a fool may be picked 
up by a wiser person, who knows better what to do 
with it. It is therefore not lost. A vain, silly fellow 
builds a fine house, furnishes it richly, lives in it ex- 
pensively, and in a few years ruins himself; but the 
masons, carpenters, smiths, and other honest trades- 
men have been by his employ assisted in maintaining 
and raising their families; the farmer has been paid 
for his labor, and encouraged, and the estate is now 
in better hands. In some cases, indeed, certain 
modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the same 
manner as it is a private one. If there be a nation, 
for instance, that exports its beef and linen, to pay 
for the importation of claret and porter, while a 
great part of its people live upon potatoes, and wear 
no shirts, wherein does it differ from the sot, who 
lets his family starve, and sells his clothes to buy 
drink? Our American commerce is, I confess, a 
little in this way. We sell our victuals to the Islands 
for rum and sugar—the substantial necessaries of 
life for superfluities. But we have plenty, and live 
well nevertheless, though, by being sober, we might 
be richer. 
The vast quantity of forest land we have yet to 
clear and put in order for cultivation will, for a long 
time keep the body of our nation laborious and 
frugal. 
Forming an opinion of our people and their man- 
ners by what is seen among the inhabitants of the 
seaports, is judging from an improper sample. The 
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