es are suited to their fortune
and rank, what degree of expense in dress is essential to a regularly
neat appearance, and what must be the increased expense and
temptations of fashion in different situations; they should not be
suffered to imagine that they can resist these temptations more than
others, if they get into company above their rank, nor should they
have any indistinct idea, that by some wonderful economical operations
they can make a given sum of money go further than others can do. The
steadiness of calculation will prevent all these vain notions; and
young women, when they see in stubborn figures what must be the
consequence of getting into situations where they must be tempted to
exceed their means, will probably begin by avoiding, instead of
braving, the danger.

Most parents think that their sons are more disposed to extravagance
than their daughters; the sons are usually exposed to greater
temptations. Young men excite one another to expense, and to a certain
carelessness of economy, which assumes the name of spirit, while it
often forfeits all pretensions to justice. A prudent father will
never, from any false notions of forming his son early to _good_
company, introduce him to associates whose only merit is their rank
or their fortune. Such companions will lead a weak young man into
every species of extravagance, and then desert and ridicule him in the
hour of distress. If a young man has a taste for literature, and for
rational society, his economy will be secured, simply because his
pleasures will not be expensive, nor will they be dependent upon the
caprice of fashionable associates. The intermediate state between that
of a school-boy and a man, is the dangerous period in which taste for
expense is often acquired, before the means of gratifying it are
obtained. Boys listen with anxiety to the conversation of those who
are a few years older than themselves. From this conversation they
gather _information_ respecting the ways of the world, which, though
often erroneous, they tenaciously believe to be accurate: it is in
vain that their older friends may assure them that such and such
frivolous expenses are not necessary to the well-being of a man in
society; they adhere to the opinion of the younger counsel; they
conclude that every thing has changed since their parents were young,
that they must not govern themselves by antiquated notions, but by the
scheme of economy which happens to be the fashi