lors of a sand, by
hanging a buoy upon it, or as the Eddystone light-house upon a sunk
rock, which, as the poet says, 'Bids men stand off, and live; come near,
and die.'

For a tradesman to borrow money upon interest, I take to be like a man
going into a house infected with the plague; it is not only likely that
he may be infected and die, but next to a miracle if he escapes.

This part being thus hinted at, I think I may say of the following
sheets, that they contain all the directions needful to make the
tradesman thrive; and if he pleases to listen to them with a temper of
mind willing to be directed, he must have some uncommon ill luck if he
miscarries.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] [October 22, 1707.--Admiral Shovel, with the confederate fleet from
the Mediterranean, as he was coming home, apprehended himself near the
rocks of Scilly about noon, and the weather being hazy, he brought to
and lay by till evening, when he made a signal for sailing. What induced
him to be more cautious in the day than in the night is not known; but
the fleet had not been long under sail before his own ship, the
_Association_, with the _Eagle_ and _Romney_, were dashed to pieces upon
the rocks called the _Bishop and his Clerks_, and all their men lost;
the _Ferdinand_ was also cast away, and but twenty-four of her men
saved. Admiral Byng, perceiving the misfortune, altered his course,
whereby he preserved himself and the rest of the fleet which sailed
after him.--_Salmon's Chronological Historian_. London, 1723.]

[2] [There is much reason for receiving all such complaints as the above
with caution. The extravagance of the present, in contrast with the
frugality of a past age, has always been a favourite topic of
declamation, and appears to have no other foundation than whim. Indeed,
it is next to impossible that any great body of men could exist in the
circumstances described in the text.]

[3] [Stock is in this book invariably used for what we express by the
term _capital_.]

[4] [Cicero is here given by mistake for Seneca, who thus suffered death
by order of the tyrant Nero.]

INTRODUCTION

Being to direct this discourse to the tradesmen of this nation, it is
needful, in order to make the substance of this work and the subject of
it agree together, that I should in a few words explain the terms, and
tell the reader who it is we understand by the word tradesman, and how
he is to be qualified in order to merit the title of _comp