late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake
his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly, that
poverty soon overtakes him."

"At the working man's house hunger looks in, but dares not
enter."

"Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things
to industry."

"One to-day is worth two to-morrows."

"Drive thy business, let not thy business drive thee."

"God helps them that help themselves."

These are very beautiful and expressive sentences, and they show that
Benjamin Franklin thought as much of industry in his manhood as his
father did a quarter of a century before. Take the first, in which he
compares slothfulness to rust, which will consume iron tools or
machinery faster than their constant use will. As the use of a hoe or
a spade keeps it polished, so the habitual exercise of the powers of
human nature preserves them in a good condition. A key that is cast
aside soon rusts, and is spoiled, but "the used key is always
bright." It is more fit for use because it has been used.

How true it is that "hunger dare not enter the working-man's house!"
By the sweat of his brow he earns his daily bread, and his children do
not cry with hunger. It is the lazy man's table that has no bread. His
children rise up hungry, and go to bed supperless. God himself hath
said, "If any would not work, neither should he eat."

"Diligence is the mother of good luck." Another gem of wisdom that
commands our acquiescence. How common for the indolent to complain of
"bad luck!" Their families need the necessaries of life, as both a
scanty table and rent apparel bear witness, and they cast the blame
upon "ill luck," "misfortune," "unavoidable circumstances," or
something of the kind. Many men whose faces are reddened and blotched
by intemperance, begotten in the barroom where they have worse than
idled away days and weeks of precious time, are often heard to lament
over their "bad luck," as if their laziness and intemperance were not
the direct cause of their misery. But it is not often that the
diligent experience "bad luck." They receive a reward for their
labours, and thrift and honour attend their steps, according as it is
written in the Bible: "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and _hath_
nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Seest thou a
man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall
not stand before mean men."

Bu