CLOTHES?

Yes, but within bounds.  You can always afford to pay more for clothes than they are worth, and pay more attention to them also than they are worth; but here again temperance is recommended.

HORSES?

Yes; that is, enough to learn to ride, to master your horse, develop your muscle and abandon and poise, but not enough to watch jockeys carrying your colors or your coachman before you carrying your reins.  Learn to ride, learn to drive; but that does not mean necessarily that you had better bring a pony back with you.

THEATRES?

Use theatres sparingly.  They are perfect gluttons for time, and use up money.  But of these the more important is time, and they make desperate inroads into the next day.  So be temperate in theatres.  Put part in for education and part for the discard.

BOOKS?

By all means.  Spare no money on them.  Be a spendthrift for books.  We can always afford them; but pay for the printed matter, and not for the covers.  If you choose books wisely and know what is in them and where to get at them when you want them, you can for a very small expense have a mine of information and recreation at your elbow, which could make you the best educated of men.

CLUBS?

Freely.  It mostly goes to the discard; but you can afford that, provided you are careful not to have too great a waste of time.  There are more opportunities lost inside of club walls than are gained.

CARDS?

There is no gain in gambling beyond the opportunity of watching the human character, and, incidentally to develop it; but it is time lost, and unworthily lost.  The end does not justify the means.  You had better play and read and sleep rather than gamble.

WINE?

Yes and no.  Always in moderation.  Do not acquire the habit of drinking.  It is useless; and, after all that is said in favor of it by our mutual friend, Omar, and others, I can never see that a man is worse off for never having been drunk, and I am even Puritanical enough to think that he is better off, and, moreover, he has more self-respect, to say nothing of the respect of others.  Nobody ever loses caste by refusing to drink.  It is a difficult thing to do sometimes; but you know the old adage, that any man can lead a horse to water, but a hundred cannot make him drink.  It is a pity that men should be inferior to horses in that respect.  You will think that this is becoming a temperance lecture.  Perhaps it is; but never mind, it does not call for total abstinence.

TOBACCO?