P., _On Work and Wages_.]
Although the French workman has nothing like the same facilities for
saving as the English, the _Journal des Debats_ alleges that he saves
ten times as much as his rival. There are only about a thousand savings
banks and branches established in France, and yet two millions of
persons belonging to the lower ranks last year had invested in them
about twenty-eight millions sterling. But the Frenchman of the city
prefers investing in Government Rentes; and the Frenchman of the country
prefers investing in land. All, however, are thrifty, saving, and
frugal; because they are educated in economy from their earliest years.
CHAPTER XII
LIVING BEYOND THE MEANS.
"By no means run in debt: take thine own measure.
Who cannot live on twenty pounds a year,
Cannot on forty: he's a man of pleasure,
A kind of thing that's for itself too dear."--_George Herbert_.
"But what will Mrs. Grundy say?"--_Old Play._
"YES and No are, for good or evil, the Giants of Life."--_Jerrold_.
"A hundred years of vexation will not pay a farthing of debt."--_From
the French_.
"Respectability is all very well for folks who can have it for ready
money: but to be obliged to run into debt for it--it's enough to break
the heart of an angel."--_Jerrold._
Extravagance is the pervading sin of modern society.
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