ed, never want excuses for indulging in the habit. At first she
will be indulged without bounds; and to make a _change_ afterwards will
be difficult, for it will be deemed a _wrong_ done to her; she will
ascribe it to diminished affection. A quarrel must ensue, or, the
husband must submit to be ruined, or, at the very least, to see half
the fruit of his labor snored and lounged away.

And, is this being unreasonably harsh or severe upon woman? By no
means. It arises from an ardent desire to promote the happiness, and to
add to the natural, legitimate, and salutary influence of the female
sex. The tendency of this advice is to promote the preservation of
their health; to prolong the duration of their beauty; to cause them to
be loved to the last day of their lives; and to give them, during the
whole of those lives, that weight and consequence, and respect, of
which laziness would render them wholly unworthy.

9. FRUGALITY.

This means the contrary of extravagance. It does not mean _stinginess_;
it does not mean _pinching_; but it means an abstaining from all
unnecessary expenditure, and all unnecessary use of goods of any and of
every sort. It is a quality of great importance, whether the rank in
life be high or low.

Some people are, indeed, so rich, they have such an over-abundance of
money and goods, that how to get rid of them would, to a spectator,
seem to be their only difficulty. How many individuals of fine estates,
have been ruined and degraded by the extravagance of their wives! More
frequently by their _own_ extravagance, perhaps; but, in numerous
instances, by that of those whose duty it is to assist in upholding
their stations by husbanding their fortunes.

If this be the case amongst the opulent, who have estates to draw upon,
what must be the consequences of a want of frugality in the middle and
lower ranks of life? Here it must be fatal, and especially among that
description of persons whose wives have, in many cases, the receiving
as well as the expending of money. In such a case, there wants nothing
but extravagance in the wife to make ruin as inevitable as the arrival
of old age.

To obtain security against this is very difficult; yet, if the lover be
not quite _blind_, he may easily discover a propensity towards
extravagance. The object of his addresses will, nine times out of ten,
never be the manager of a house; but she must have her _dress_, and
other little matters under her control. If she