"In the living of the poor (as indeed of all of us) there are two things
to be considered; how to get money, and how to spend it. Now, I believe,
the experience of employers will bear me out in saying, that it is
frequently found that the man with 20s. a week does not live more
comfortably, or save more, than the man with 14s.,--the families of the
two men being the same in number and general circumstances. It is
probable that unless he have a good deal of prudence and thought, the
man who gets at all more than the average of his class does not know
what to do with it, or only finds in it a means superior to that which
his fellows possess of satisfying his appetite for drinking."
Notwithstanding, however, the discouraging circumstances to which we
have referred, we must believe that in course of time, as men's nature
becomes improved by education--secular, moral, and religious--they may
be induced to make a better use of their means, by considerations of
prudence, forethought, and parental responsibility. A German writer
speaks of the education given to a child as _a capital_--equivalent to a
store of money--placed at its disposal by the parent. The child, when
grown to manhood, may employ the education, as he might employ the
money, badly; but that is no argument against the possession of either.
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