time is so much occupied, as you know, that though I can often think of my friends, and sometimes talk with them, I can seldom do more. I believe I think of you fully as often as any one thing or person in this world; and the subject, though it gives me some anxiety, gives me still more satisfaction. I am anxious when I reflect on the hazards you must run, and the chances of fortune that you must sustain. Toil and exertion are your lot as well as your father's, and I wish you to be prepared in body and mind to meet your destination. You will start in the world with more advantages of friends, as well as of property, than I did; for my advantages of this description were very few. Under all my difficulties, however, I used to be supported by a maxim instilled into me by my father that no one ought to sink in his own opinion because he is inferior to others in the goods of fortune, which are not in his power; but that vice, profligacy, or idleness, are the only real grounds of self-abasement. If a man has but little, let him use the faculties that God has given him; let him learn to do with little; let him avoid habits of expense and indulgence, and ground his competition with others, not on show or profusion, but on talents and virtue.

To form right opinions on this subject is of the utmost importance.

You are soon going among strangers. Never put yourself off, or allow yourself to be put off, for a boy of more consequence in the world than you are because this may raise expectations of your going to expense beyond what is right for you to go to; and when such expectations are formed, it is very mortifying to disappoint them. This mortification has led many a one astray; and it arises from a want of manly fortitude in the first instance to avow one's true situation.

I will tell you a story of myself, which, though it happened when I was a few months older than you, I remember as fresh as yesterday.

At the time I speak of, my father sent me to Dumfries school, and I was boarded, as you are now, with the master. The boys, I found, used many of them to brag of the consequence, and particularly of the riches, of their fathers, and to speak of the large sums allowed them for pocket money. As to myself, I had all the indulgence in this respect necessary, but very much less than they talked of. I said nothing on the subject. Soon after this, one of the lads, who was the greatest boaster of them all, observed me with some shillings in my hand. They had been given me to buy a new hat (for

my father had great confidence in me), and I had taken them inadvertently out of my pocket to look at them. This boy whispered among the others that Currie, though he said nothing about it, had more pocket-money than any of them; and this, I found, gave me, as a stranger, consequence among them. I delayed buying the hat; and though I never said the money was my own, I did not deny it: neither did I spend it.

A few days after this, the boy I speak of came to me, and in a careless and confident way asked me to lend him five shillings, promising to return it when he got his quarter's allowance, which would be in a few days. He knew I had the money, and it seemed niggardly to refuse him, especially as he supposed it was my own pocket money; so I gave it to him. But I could never get it from him: and he died some years afterwards in my debt. I might have told my father the whole truth, but it was mortifying; so I resolved to do with my old hat, which was perfectly shabby; and when I went into company, an elder boy, to whom I confessed my situation, used to lend me his; and all the boys in the school soon knew the whole story, so my mortification was double and treble.

ever, it cured me.

How

Here is a young officer of the name of Vans,

a relation of yours, about sixteen years of age. At Mr. Steuart's the other day Captain Crawford was talking, in a large company, of the scarcity of cash, and saying that he could not have marched the troops from Manchester, if Vans had not lent him money to pay them. This was giving Vans consequence among strangers, and he had only to have said nothing, you know, if he had wished to puff himself off. It was a fine thing for a young Ensign to have more money than the Colonel or the Captains. Vans, however, would not let the matter pass. He said he had lent the Captain seventeen guineas, but, added he, "they were not my own." He laughed when he said it and I was sure he was a clever boy, and a spirited fellow.

There is another very clever boy, who has taken quite a wrong turn on this subject. He is at College, and has got into company with young men of large fortunes, who spend a great deal more money than he ought to spend. All he ought to do would be to refuse to spend with them; and if any of them cut him on that account, to treat them with contempt. They are fools, and not worth associating with. But, instead of this, he spends as they do, and runs in debt, and then has to come on his father to advance for him at the end of the term. So he

wastes his time, and distresses his father; and if he does not soon mend, he will turn out, though a very clever boy naturally, good for nothing, or worse than that.

You

Here, my dear Shylock, you have a sketch of my mind on an important point, on which I am not much afraid of your going wrong. have a spirit too proud to submit to the meanness of such conduct when you see it in a true light, and your affectionate heart will assist your understanding. I trust I shall be able to keep you above any any real want; and you will not mortify me by aspiring at indulgences, which it would be improper for me to give you, and painful to refuse.

My confidence in your good sense and good heart makes me think of you with more satisfaction than anxiety, as I said at first; otherwise I can foresee that you will have obstacles to remove, and difficulties to surmount. No matter: if you think rightly and act vigorously, you will be the better and the happier for your necessary exertions. Look at the greyhound as he lies by the fire: he has nothing to do; his eye is heavy, his skin is dirty, his hair probably covered with vermin. How stupid and worthless he looks! He is the prototype of the man who has nothing to do, and nothing to wish for. But look again; -he