most amiable features of _good_ republican society is this;
that men seldom boast of their riches, or disguise their poverty, but
speak of both, as of any other matters that are proper for
conversation. No man shuns another because he is poor; no man is
preferred to another because he is rich. In hundreds and hundreds of
instances have men in this country, not worth a shilling, been chosen
by the people to take care of their rights and interests, in preference
to men who ride in their carriages.

The shame of being thought poor leads to everlasting efforts to
_disguise_ one's poverty. The carriage--the domestics--the wine--the
spirits--the decanters--the glass;--all the table apparatus, the
horses, the dresses, the dinners, and the parties, must be kept up; not
so much because he or she who keeps or gives them has any pleasure
arising therefrom, as because not to keep and give them, would give
rise to a suspicion of _a want of means_. And thus thousands upon
thousands are yearly brought into a state of real poverty, merely by
their great anxiety not to be thought poor. Look around you carefully,
and see if this is not so.

In how many instances have you seen amiable and industrious families
brought to ruin by nothing else but the fear they _should_ be? Resolve,
then, from the first, to set this false shame at defiance. When you
have done that, effectually, you have laid the corner-stone of mental
tranquillity.

There are thousands of families at this very moment, struggling to keep
up appearances. They feel that it makes them miserable; but you can no
more induce them to change their course, than you can put a stop to the
miser's laying up gold.

Farmers accommodate themselves to their condition more easily than
merchants, mechanics, and professional men. They live at a greater
distance from their neighbors; they can change their style of living
without being perceived; they can put away the decanter, change the
china for something plain, and the world is none the wiser for it. But
the mechanic, the doctor, the attorney, and the trader cannot make the
change so quietly and unseen.

Stimulating drink, which is a sort of criterion of the scale of
living,--(or scale to the plan,)--a sort of key to the tune;--this is
the thing to banish first of all, because all the rest follow; and in a
short time, come down to their proper level.

Am I asked, what is a glass of wine? I answer, _it is every thing_. It
creates a dem