As a guarantee of independence, the modest and plebeian quality of economy is at once ennobled and raised to the rank of one of the most meritorious of virtues.  “Never treat money affairs with levity,” said Bulwer; “Money is Character.”  Some of man’s best qualities depend upon the right use of money,—­such as his generosity, benevolence, justice, honesty, and forethought.  Many of his worst qualities also originate in the bad use of money,—­such as greed, miserliness, injustice, extravagance, and improvidence.

No class ever accomplished anything that lived from hand to mouth.  People who spend all that they earn, are ever hanging on the brink of destitution.  They must necessarily be weak and impotent—­the slaves of time and circumstance.  They keep themselves poor.  They lose self-respect, as well as the respect of others.  It is impossible that they can be free and independent.  To be thriftless, is enough to deprive one of all manly spirit and virtue.

But a man with something saved, no matter how little, is in a different position.  The little capital he has stored up, is always a source of power.  He is no longer the sport of time and fate.  He can boldly look the world in the face.  He is, in a manner, his own master.  He can dictate his own terms.  He can neither be bought nor sold.  He can look forward with cheerfulness to an old age of comfort and happiness.

As men become wise and thoughtful, they generally become provident and frugal.  A thoughtless man, like a savage, spends as he gets, thinking nothing of to-morrow, of the time of adversity, or of the claims of those whom he has made dependent on him.  But a wise man thinks of the future; he prepares in good time for the evil day that may come upon him and his family; and he provides carefully for those who are near and dear to him.

What a serious responsibility does the man incur who marries!  Not many seriously think, of this responsibility.  Perhaps this is wisely ordered.  For, much serious thinking might end in the avoidance of married life and its responsibilities.  But, once married, a man ought forthwith to determine that, so far as his own efforts are concerned, want shall never enter his household; and that his children shall not, in the event of his being removed from the scene of life and labour, be left a burthen upon society.

Economy with this object is an important duty.  Without economy, no man can be just—­no man can be honest.  Improvidence is cruelty to women and children; though the cruelty is born of ignorance.  A father spends his surplus means in drink, providing little, and saving nothing; and then he dies, leaving his destitute family his lifelong victims.  Can any form of cruelty surpass this?  Yet this reckless course is pursued to a large extent among every class.  The middle and upper classes are equally guilty with the lower class.  They live beyond their means.  They live extravagantly.  They are ambitious of glare and glitter—­frivolity and pleasure.  They struggle to be rich, that they may have the means of spending,—­of drinking rich wines, and giving good dinners.