ck, tho' we give them no Straw, and
that we starve them, by sending our Money abroad for foreign
Commodities, to feed our Extravagance, and gratify our Madness for
importing Fopperies; tho' we hurt our Families for the present, and
ruin our Poor for ever, who dare not set up Manufactures they know will
not be worn. Surely in a Kingdom where no body looks to his own
Affairs, as they are connected with the Publick, 'tis Time the Publick
shou'd look to every Bodies. What a melancholy Prospect is it, to see
fine Cloaths, fine Equipages, fine Race Horses, fine Laces, fine
Dishes, deep Play and deep Drinking, the Glory and delight of our
People of Fashion; and Ease, and Sloth, and Sleep, and Potatoes, the
chief Joy of our Lifeless neglected Natives. Is not such a Nation like
a Ship set on Fire on one end, and sinking by a thousand Shot-holes and
Leaks, at the other? If we were a little frugal, we might the better
bear the Loss we undergo by our Idleness and Inactivity; but when our
Gentlemen sacrifice so much to their Pleasures, and our Ladies to their
Finery, both which they wisely seek for from foreign Productions, we
must be undone unless we prevent our Destruction, by resolving to Work
and be busy. There is no Alternative----, one of these two Things we
must do; we must either be less Mad for the Manufactures and Products
of other Nations, or we must enlarge our Industry, and make Reprisals
thereby on our Neighbours, in order to keep our People alive and easy
while they are Living. Possibly I may have said this before, _Tom_, and
probably I shall say it again, for a full Heart and a troubled Mind, is
apt to deal in Repetitions, when they grow almost desperate, and see
little hope of a Change for the better.

PRIOR. Dear _Dean_, I own I shou'd be glad to contradict you, as to
these dismal Representations of Things; but I have learn'd since I left
a false World, to love Truth, tho' it be ever so strong against us, or
puts us and our Actions in ever so bad a Light. It is too certain
Industry and Frugality are the two great Sources of Prosperity in all
Nations; and it is a mortifying Reflection to consider what a miserable
Share we have in either of them here. 'Tis as certain if we be Frugal
and Industrious, we must be easy and happy, as that we must be wretched
and miserable, if we continue our Love to Expence and our hatred to
Labour. Nay Frugality and Wealth, which is the Consequence of it, will
not do, unless we are dilig