to quote:--

A young man, it appears, "wasted, in two or three years, a large
patrimony in profligate revels with a number of worthless associates
who called themselves his friends, and who, when his last means were
exhausted, treated him of course with neglect or contempt. Reduced to
absolute want, he one day went out of the house with an intention to
put an end to his life, but wandering awhile almost unconsciously, he
came to the brow of an eminence which overlooked what were lately his
estates. Here he sat down, and remained fixed in thought a number of
hours, at the end of which he sprang from the ground with a vehement,
exulting emotion. He had formed his resolution, which was, that all
these estates should be his again; he had formed his plan, too, which
he instantly began to execute. He walked hastily forward, determined
to seize the first opportunity, of however humble a kind, to gain any
money, though it were ever so despicable a trifle, and resolved
absolutely not to spend, if he could help it, a farthing of whatever he
might obtain. The first thing that drew his attention was a heap of
coals shot out of carts on the pavement before a house. He offered
himself to shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to be
laid, and was employed.

He received a few pence for the labor; and then, in pursuance of the
saving part of his plan requested some small gratuity of meat and
drink, which was given {176} him. He then looked out for the next
thing that might chance; and went, with indefatigable industry, through
a succession of servile employments in different places, of longer and
shorter duration, still scrupulous in avoiding, as far as possible, the
expense of a penny. He promptly seized every opportunity which could
advance his design, without regarding the meanness of occupation or
appearance. By this method he had gained, after a considerable time,
money enough to purchase in order to sell again a few cattle, of which
he had taken pains to understand the value. He speedily but cautiously
turned his first gains into second advantages; retained without a
single deviation his extreme parsimony; and thus advanced by degrees
into larger transactions and incipient wealth. I did not hear, or have
forgotten, the continued course of his life, but the final result was,
that he more than recovered his lost possessions, and died an
inveterate miser, worth L60,000."[94]

[94] Op. cit., Letter III., abr