and if I
may give him a rule, safe, and in its end comfortable, in proportion to
his circumstances, but, to be sure, out of question, just, honest, and
prudent, it is this:--

When he perceives his case as above, and knows that if his new
adventures or projects should fail, he cannot by any means stand or
support himself, I not only give it as my advice to all tradesmen, as
their interest, but insist upon it, as they are honest men, they should
break, that is, stop in time: fear not to do that which necessity
obliges you to do; but, above all, fear not to do that early, which, if
omitted, necessity will oblige you to do late.

First, let me argue upon the honesty of it, and next upon the prudence
of it. Certainly, honesty obliges every man, when he sees that his stock
is gone, that he is below the level, and eating into the estate of other
men, to put a stop to it, and to do it in time, while something is left.
It has been a fault, without doubt, to break in upon other men's estates
at all; but perhaps a plea may be made that it was ignorantly done, and
they did not think they were run so far as to be worse than nothing; or
some sudden disaster may have occasioned it, which they did not expect,
and, it may be, could not foresee; both which may indeed happen to a
tradesman, though the former can hardly happen without his fault,
because he ought to be always acquainting himself with his books,
stating his expenses and his profits, and casting things up frequently,
at least in his head, so as always to know whether he goes backward or
forward. The latter, namely, sudden disaster, may happen so to any
tradesman as that he may be undone, and it may not be his fault; for
ruin sometimes falls as suddenly as unavoidably upon a tradesman, though
there are but very few incidents of that kind which may not be accounted
for in such a manner as to charge it upon his prudence.

Some cases may indeed happen, some disasters may befall a tradesman,
which it was not possible he should foresee, as fire, floods of water,
thieves, and many such--and in those cases the disaster is visible, the
plea is open, every body allows it, the man can have no blame. A
prodigious tide from the sea, joined with a great fresh or flood in the
river Dee, destroyed the new wharf below the Roodee at West Chester, and
tore down the merchants' warehouses there, and drove away not only all
the goods, but even the buildings and altogether, into the sea. Now, if