In making the preceding observations we do not in the least advocate the formation of miserly, penurious habits; for we hate the scrub, the screw, the miser.  All that we contend for is, that man should provide for the future,—­that they should provide during good times for the bad times which almost invariably follow them,—­that they should lay by a store of savings as a breakwater against want, and make sure of a little fund which may maintain them in old age, secure their self-respect, and add to their personal comfort and social well-being.  Thrift is not in any way connected with avarice, usury, greed, or selfishness.  It is, in fact, the very reverse of these disgusting dispositions.

It means economy for the purpose of securing independence.  Thrift requires that money should be used and not abused—­that it should be honestly earned and economically employed—­

“Not for to put it in a hedge,
 Not for a train attendent,—­
 But for the glorious privilege
 Of being Independent.”

CHAPTER III.

IMPROVIDENCE.

“The man who has a wife and children has given hostages to fortune.”—­Lord Bacon.

“In all conditions and circumstances, well-being is in the power of those who have power over themselves.”—­J.J.  Gurney.

“Where is their common sense?  Alas, what imprudence!  Early marriages; many children; poor-rates, and the workhouse....  They are born; they are wretched; they die....  In no foreign country of far less civilization than England, is there the same improvidence.”—­Lord Lytton.

“No man oppresses thee, O free and independent franchiser; but does not this stupid pewter pot oppress thee?  No son of Adam can bid thee come or go, but this absurd pot of heavy-wet can and does, Thou art the thrall, not of Cedric the Saxon, but of thy own brutal appetites, and this accursed dish of liquor.  And thou pratest of thy ‘liberty,’ thou entire blockhead!”—­Carlyle.

“Never did any publike misery
 Rise of it selfe; God’s plagues still grounded are
 On common staines of our Humanity: 
     And to the flame, which ruineth Mankind,
     Man gives the matter, or at least gives winde.”—­Daniell.

England is one of the richest countries in the world.  Our merchants are enterprising, our manufacturers are industrious, our labourers are hard-working.  There is an accumulation of wealth in the country to which past times can offer no parallel.  The Bank is gorged with gold.  There never was more food in the empire; there never was more money.  There is no end to our manufacturing productions, for the steam-engine never tires.  And yet notwithstanding all this wealth, there is an enormous mass of poverty.  Close alongside the Wealth of Nations, there gloomily stalks the Misery of Nations,—­luxurious ease resting upon a dark background of wretchedness.