Lord Chesterfield's Advice to His Son, on Men and Manners [Selections from the Letters]. (Volume 1) - Softcover

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1836 Excerpt: ... ness in looks and motions gives dignity, without excluding wit and decent cheerfulness. A constant smirk upon the face and a whiffling activity of the body are strong indicatio-vs of futility. ECONOMY. A Fool squanders away without credit or advantage to himself more than a man of sense spends with both. The latter employs his money as he does his time, and never spends a shilling of the one nor a minute of the other, but in something that is either useful or rationally pleasing to himself or others. The former buys whatever he does not want, and does not pay for what he does want. He cannot withstand the charms of a toy-shop: snuff-boxes, watches, heads of canes, &c. are his destruction. His servants and tradesmen conspire with his own indolence to cheat him; and, in a very little time, he is astonished, in the midst of all these ridiculous superfluities, to find himself in want of all the real comforts and necessaries of life. Without care and method, the largest fortune will not, and with them almost the smallest will, supply all necessary expenses. As far as you can possibly, pay ready money for every thing you buy, and avoid bills. Pay that money, too, yourself, and not through the hands of any servant; who always either stipulates poundage, or requires a present for his good word, as they call it. Where you must have bills, (as for meal and drink, clothes, &c.) pay them regularly every month, and with your own hand. Never, from a mistaken economy, buy a thing you do not want, because it is cheap; or, from a silly pride, because' it is dear. Keep an account, in a book, of all that you receive, and of all that you pay; for no man who knows what he receives and what he pays ever runs out. I do not mean that you should keep an account of the shillings and...