RETURN NOT EVIL FOR EVIL.

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evil, by indulging in a passion yourself? Will it cure his disease, to throw yourself into the same distemper? But if not, then how foolish is it to indulge improper feelings at all!

On the same principles, and for the same reasons, you should avoid returning railing for railing; or reviling for reproach. It only kindles the more heat. Besides, you will often find silence, or at least very gentle words, as in the case of the Quaker just mentioned, the best return for reproaches which could be devised. I say the best ' return ;' but I would not be understood as justifying any species of revenge. The kind of return here spoken of is precisely that treatment which will be most likely to cure the distemper in the other, by making him see, and be sorry for, his passion.

If the views taken in this section be true, it is easy to see the consummate folly of all violence, whether between individuals or collective bodies; whether it be by striking, duelling, or war. For if an individual or a nation has done a wrong, will it annihilate that wrong to counteract it by another wrong? Is it not obvious that it only makes two evils, where but one existed before? And can two wrongs ever make one right action? Which is the most rational, when the choice is in our power, to add to one existing evil, another of similar or greater magnitude; or to keep quiet, and let the world have but one cup of misery instead of two? Besides this, the language of the Scriptures is

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every where full and decided on this point. 'Recompense to no man evil for evil,' and 'wo to him by whom the offence cometh,' though found but once or twice in just so many words, are in fact, some of the most prominent doctrines of the New Testament; and I very much doubt whether you can read many pages, in succession, in any part of the bible, without finding this great principle enforced. The daily example of the Saviour and the apostles and early Christians is a full confirmation of it, in practice.

CHAPTER II.

On the Management of Business.

SECTION I. On commencing Business.

YOUNG men are apt to be in haste to commence business for themselves. This is an evil, and one which appears to me to be increasing. Let me caution my readers to be on their guard against it.

The evils of running in debt will be adverted to elsewhere. I mention the subject in this place, because the earlier you commence business, the greater the necessity of resorting to credit. You may, indeed, in some employments, begin on a very small scale; but this is attended with serious disadvantages, especially at the present day, when you must meet with so much competition. Perhaps a few may be furnished with capital by their friends, or by inheritance. In the latter case you may as well use your money, if you receive it; but I have already endeavored to show that it is generally for the interest of young men to rely

upon their own exertions. It is extremely difficult for a person who has ever relied on others, to act with the same energy as those who have been thrown upon their own resources. To learn the art of inheriting property or receiving large gifts, and yet acting with the same energy as if left wholly to our own resources, must be reserved, I believe, for future and wiser generations of our race.

1 repeat it, therefore, every person had better defer going into business for himself, until he can stand entirely on his own footing. Is it asked how he can have funds from his own resources before he has actually commenced business for himself? Why the thing is perfectly easy. You are only to labor a few years in the service of another. True it is, you will only receive the wages of young men, during this time; but on the other hand, you are subjected to little or no risk.

Let 1000 young men, at the age of 30 years, enter into business with a given amount of capital, all acquired by their own hard earnings, and let them pursue their business 30 years faithfully; that is till they are 60 years of age. Let 1000 more commence at the age of 20, with three times the amount of capital possessed by the former, but at the same time either inherited, or loaned by their friends, and let them pursue their calling till they are 60 years of age; or a period of 40 years. We will suppose the natural talents, capacity for doing business, and expenditures — in fact every thing,-the same, in both cases. Now it re

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quires no gift of prophecy to foretell with certainty that at 60 years of age a far greater proportion of the 1000, who began at 30 and depended solely on their own exertions, will be men of wealth, than of those who began at 20 with three times their capital.

The reason of these results is found in the very nature of things, as I have shown both above, and in my remarks on industry. But these views are also borne out by facts. Go into any city in the United States, and learn the history of the men who are engaged in active and profitable business, and are thriving in the world, and my word for it, you will find the far greater part began life with nothing, and have had no resources whatever but their own head and hands; and in no city is this fact more strikingly verified than in Boston. On the other hand, if you make a list of those who fail in business from year to year, and learn their history, you will find that a very large proportion of them relied on inheritances, credit, or some kind of foreign aid in early life;—and not a few begun very young.

There is no doctrine in this volume, which will be more unpopular with my readers, than this. Not a few will, I fear, utterly disbelieve it. They look at the exterior appearance of some young friend a little older than themselves who has been lifted into business and gone on a year or two, and all appears fair and encouraging. They long to imitate him. Point them to a dozen others who

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