A purchase made at the
lowest price will be dear, if it be a superfluity. Little expenses lead
to great. Buying things that are not wanted, soon accustoms us to
prodigality in other respects.
Cicero said, "Not to have a mania for buying, is to possess a revenue."
Many are carried away by the habit of bargain-buying. "Here is something
wonderfully cheap: let us buy it." "Have you any use for it?" "No, not
at present; but it is sure to come in useful, some time." Fashion runs
in this habit of buying. Some buy old china--as much as will furnish a
china-shop. Others buy old pictures--old furniture--old wines,--all
great bargains! There would be little harm in buying these old things,
if they were not so often bought at the expense of the connoisseur's
creditors. Horace Walpole once said, "I hope that there will not be
another sale, for I have not an inch of room nor a farthing left."
Men must prepare in youth and in middle age the means of enjoying old
age pleasantly and happily. There can be nothing more distressing than
to see an old man who has spent the greater part of his life in
well-paid-for-labour, reduced to the necessity of begging for bread, and
relying entirely on the commiseration of his neighbours, or upon the
bounty of strangers. Such a consideration as this should inspire men in
early life with a determination to work and to save, for the benefit of
themselves and their families in later years.
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