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Page 38
It is indeed probable, that without many trials of this peculiarly
painful kind, the duty of economy could not be deeply enough impressed
on a naturally generous and warm heart. The restraints of prudence would
be unheeded, unless bitter experience, as it were, burned them in.
I have spoken of two necessary preparations for the practice of
economy,--the first, a clear general view of our probable expenses; the
second, which I am now about to notice, is the calculation of the
probable funds that are to meet these expenses. In your case, there is a
certain income, with sundry contingencies, very much varying, and
altogether uncertain. Such probabilities, then, as the latter, ought to
be appropriated to such expenses as are occasional and not inevitable:
you must never calculate on them for any of your necessary expenditure,
except in the same average manner as you have calculated that
expenditure; and you must estimate the average considerably within
probabilities, or you will be often thrown into discomfort. It is much
better that all indulgences of mere taste, of entirely personal
gratification, should be dependent on this uncertain fund; and here
again I would warn you to keep in view the more pressing wants that may
arise in the future. The gratification in which you are now indulging
yourself may be a perfectly innocent one; but are you quite sure that
you are not expending more money than _you_ can prudently, or, to speak
better, conscientiously afford, on that which offers only a temporary
gratification, and involves no improvement or permanent benefit? You
certainly are not sufficiently rich to indulge in any merely temporary
gratification, except in extreme moderation. With relation to that part
of your income which is varying and uncertain, I have observed that it
is a very common temptation assailing the generous and thoughtless,
(about money matters, often those who are least thoughtless about other
things,) that there is always some future prospect of an increase of
income, which is to free them from present embarrassments, and enable
them to pay for the enjoyment of all those wishes that they are now
gratifying. It is a future, however, that never arrives; for every
increase of property brings new claims or new wants along with it; and
it is found, too late, that, by exceeding present income, we have
destroyed both the present and the future, we have created wants which
the future income will find a difficulty in supplying, having in
addition its own new ones to provide for.
It may indeed in a few, a very few, cases be necessary, in others
expedient, to forestall that money which we have every certainty of
presently possessing; but unless the expenditure relates to particulars
coming under the term of "daily bread," it appears to me decided
dishonesty to lay out an uncertain future income. Even if it should
become ours, have we not acted in direct contradiction to the revealed
will of God concerning us? The station of life in which God has placed
us depends very much on the expenditure within our power; and if we
double that, do we not in fact choose wilfully for ourselves a different
position from that which he has appointed, and withdraw from under the
guiding hand of his providence? Let us not hope that even temporal
success will be allowed to result from such acts of disobedience.
What a high value does it stamp on the virtue of economy, when we thus
consider it as one of the means towards enabling us to submit ourselves
to the will of God!
I cannot close a letter to a woman on the subject of economy without
referring to the subject of dress. Though your strongest temptations to
extravagance may be those of a generous, warm heart, I have no doubt
that you are also, though in an inferior degree, tempted by the desire
to improve your personal appearance by the powerful aid of dress. It
ought not to be otherwise; you should not be indifferent to a very
important means of pleasing. Your natural beauty would be unavailing
unless you devoted both time and care to its preservation and adornment.
You should be solicitous to win the affection of those around you; and
there are many who will be seriously influenced by any neglect of due
attention to your personal appearance. Besides the insensible effect
produced on the most ignorant and unreasonable spectator, those whom you
will most wish to please will look upon it, and with justice, as an
index to your mind; and a simple, graceful, and well-ordered exterior
will always give the impression that similar qualities exist within.
Dressing well is some a natural and easy accomplishment; to others, who
may have the very same qualities existing in their minds without the
power (which is in a degree mechanical) of displaying the same outward
manifestation of them, it will be much more difficult to attain the same
object with the same expense. Your study, therefore, of the art of dress
must be a double one,--must first enable you to bring the smallest
details of your apparel into as close conformity as possible to the
forms and tastes of your mind, and, secondly, enable you to reconcile
this exercise of taste with the duties of economy. If fashion is to be
consulted as well as taste, I fear that you will find this impossible;
if a gown or a bonnet is to be replaced by a new one, the moment a
slight alteration takes place in the fashion of the shape or the colour,
you will often be obliged to sacrifice taste as well as duty. Rather
make up your mind to appear no richer than you are; if you cannot afford
to vary your dress according to the rapidly--varying fashions, have the
moral courage to confess this in action. Nor will your appearance lose
much by the sacrifice. If your dress is in accordance with true taste,
the more valuable of your acquaintance will be able to appreciate that,
while they would be unconscious of any strict and expensive conformity
to the fashions of the month. Of course, I do not speak now of any
glaring discrepancy between your dress and the general costume of the
time. There could be no display of a simple taste while any singularity
in your dress attracted notice; neither could there be much additional
expense in a moderate attention to the prevailing forms and colours of
the time,--for bonnets and gowns do not, alas, last for ever. What I
mean to deprecate is the laying aside any one of these, which is
suitable in every other respect, lest it should reveal the secret of
your having expended nothing upon dress during this season. Remember how
many indulgences to your generous nature would be procured by the price
of, a fashionable gown or bonnet, and your feelings will provide a
strong support to your duty. Another way in which you may successfully
practise economy is by taking care of your clothes, having them repaired
in proper time, and neither exposing them to sun or rain unnecessarily.
A ten-guinea gown may be sacrificed in half an hour, and the indolence
of your disposition would lead you to prefer this sacrifice to the
trouble of taking any preservatory precautions, or thinking about the
matter at all. Is this right? Even if you can procure money to satisfy
the demands of mere carelessness, are you acting as a faithful steward
by thus expending it? I willingly grant to you that some women are so
wealthy, placed in situations requiring so much representation, that it
would be degrading to them to take much thought about any thing but the
beauty and fashion of their clothes; and that an anxiety on their part
about the preservation of, to them, trifles would indicate meanness and
parsimoniousness. Their office is to encourage trade by a lavish
expenditure, conformable to the rank in life in which God has placed
them. Happy are they if this wealth do not become a temptation too hard
to be overcome! Happier those from whom such temptations, denounced in
the word of God more strongly than any other, are entirely averted!
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