ng clubs, smoking clubs,
singing clubs, clubs of odd-fellows, whist clubs, sotting clubs: these
are inexcusable, they are censurable, they are at once foolish and
wicked, even in single men; what must they be, then, in _husbands_; and
how are they to answer, not only to their wives, but to their children,
for this profligate abandonment of their homes; this breach of their
solemn vow made to the former, this evil example to the latter?

171. Innumerable are the miseries that spring from this cause. The
_expense_ is, in the first place, very considerable. I much question
whether, amongst tradesmen, a _shilling_ a night pays the average score;
and that, too, for that which is really _worth_ nothing at all, and
cannot, even by possibility, be attended with any one single advantage,
however small. Fifteen pounds a year thus thrown away, would amount, in
the course of a tradesman's life, to a decent fortune for a child. Then
there is the injury to _health_ from these night adventures; there are
the _quarrels_, there is the vicious habit of loose and filthy talk;
there are the slanders and the back-bitings; there is the admiration of
contemptible wit, and there are the scoffings at all that is sober and
serious.

172. And does the husband who thus abandons his wife and children
imagine that she will not, in some degree at least, follow his example?
If he do, he is very much deceived. If she imitate him even in drinking,
he has no great reason to complain; and then the cost may be _two
shillings_ the night instead of one, equal in amount to the cost of all
the bread wanted in the family, while the baker's bill is, perhaps,
unpaid. Here are the slanderings, too, going on at home; for, while the
husbands are assembled, it would be hard if the wives were not to do the
same; and the very least that is to be expected is, that the _tea-pot_
should keep pace with the porter-pot or grog-glass. Hence crowds of
female acquaintances and intruders, and all the consequent and
inevitable squabbles which form no small part of the torment of the life
of man.

173. If you have _servants_, they know to a moment the time of your
absence; and they regulate their proceedings accordingly. 'Like master
like man,' is an old and true proverb; and it is natural, if not just,
that it should be thus; for it would be unjust if the careless and
neglectful sot were served as faithfully as the vigilant, attentive and
sober man. Late hours, cards and dice,