hose low,
contemptible parts, fit only for the vilest actors in the drama of life.
Tremble at the moment when your child has to choose between the rugged
road of industry and integrity, leading straight to honor and happiness;
and the smooth and flowery path which descends, through indolence and
pleasure, to the gulf of vice and misery. It is then that the voice of a
parent, or of some faithful friend, must direct the right course....

Surrounded as you doubtless are, by thoughtless and trifling companions,
let your mother be the rallying point of your mind and heart; the
confidant of all your plans....

Learn to know the value of money. This is a most essential point. The
want of economy leads to the decay of powerful empires, as well as
private families. Louis XVI. perished on the scaffold for a deficit of
fifty millions. There would have been no debt, no assemblies of the
people, no revolution, no loss of the sovereign authority, no tragical
death, but for this fatal deficit. States are ruined through the
mismanagement of millions, and private persons become bankrupts and end
their lives in misery through the mismanagement of crowns worth six
livres. It is very important, my dear son, that I lay down to you these
first principles of right conduct, and impress upon your mind the
necessity of adhering to them. Render me an account of the expenditure
of your money, not viewing me in the light of a rigid preceptress, but
as a friend who wishes to accustom you to the habit of accounting to
yourself....

Let me impress upon you the importance of attentive application to
business; for that affords certain consolation, and is a security
against lassitude, and the vices which idleness creates....

Be cautious how you form connections; and hesitate not to break them off
on the first proposition to adopt any course which your affectionate
mother warns you to avoid, as fatal to your real happiness, and to the
attainment of that respect and esteem which it should be your ambition
to enjoy....

Never neglect to appropriate a certain portion of your time to useful
reading; and do not imagine that even half an hour a day, devoted to
that object, will be unprofitable. The best way of arranging and
employing one's time is by calculation; and I have often reflected that
half an hour's reading every day, will be one hundred and eighty hours'
reading in the course of the year. Great fortunes are amassed by little
savings; and pover