On the morning of the day on which they left his establishment, M’Carroll came into the workshop while they were about bidding farewell to their companions, with whom they had lived—­abating the three or four pranks that were played off upon Art—­on good and friendly terms, and seeing that they were about to take their departure, he addressed them as follows:—­

“I need not say,” he proceeded, “that I regret you are leaving me; which I do, for, without meaning any disrespect to those present, I am bound to acknowledge that two better workmen, or two honester young men, were never in my employment.  Art, indeed is unsurpassed, considering his time, and that he is only closing his apprenticeship:  ’tis true, he has had good opportunities—­opportunities which, I am happy to say, he has never neglected.  I am in the habit, as you both know, of addressing a few words of advice to my young men at the close of their apprenticeships, and when they are entering upon the world as you are now.  I will therefore lay down a few simple rules for your guidance, and, perhaps, by following them, you will find yourselves neither the worse nor the poorer men.

“Let the first principle then of your life, both as mechanics, and men, be truth—­truth in all you think, in all you say, and in all you do; if this should fail to procure you the approbation of the world, it will not fail to procure you your own, and, what is better, that of God.  Let your next principle be industry—­honest, fair, legitimate industry, to which you ought to annex punctuality—­for industry without punctuality is but half a virtue.  Let your third great principle be sobriety—­strict and undeviating sobriety; a mechanic without sobriety, so far from being a benefit or an ornament to society, as he ought to be, is a curse and a disgrace to it; within the limits of sobriety all the rational enjoyments of life are comprised, and without them are to be found all those which desolate society with crime, indigence, sickness, and death.  In maintaining sobriety in the world, and especially among persons of your own class, you will certainly have much to contend with; remember that firmness of character, when acting upon right feeling and good sense, will enable you to maintain and work out every virtuous and laudable purpose which you propose to effect.  Do not, therefore, suffer yourselves to be shamed from sobriety, or, indeed, from any other moral duty, by the force of ridicule; neither, on the other hand, must you be seduced into it by flattery, or the transient gratification of social enjoyment.  I have, in fact, little further to add; you are now about to become members of society, and to assume more distinctly the duties which it imposes on you.  Discharge them all faithfully—­do not break your words, but keep your promises, and respect yourselves, remember that self-respect is a very different thing from pride, or an empty overweening vanity—­self-respect is, in fact, altogether incompatible with them, as