poor eager avaricious tradesman.

1. I am now to speak of the first, namely, pleasures and diversions. I
cannot allow any pleasures to be innocent, when they turn away either
the body or the mind of a tradesman from the one needful thing which his
calling makes necessary, and that necessity makes his duty--I mean, the
application both of his hands and head to his business. Those pleasures
and diversions may be innocent in themselves, which are not so to him:
there are very few things in the world that are simply evil, but things
are made circumstantially evil when they are not so in themselves:
killing a man is not simply sinful; on the contrary, it is not lawful
only, but a duty, when justice and the laws of God or man require it;
but when done maliciously, from any corrupt principle, or to any
corrupted end, is murder, and the worst of crimes.

Pleasures and diversions are thus made criminal, when a man is engaged
in duty to a full attendance upon such business as those pleasures and
diversions necessarily interfere with and interrupt; those pleasures,
though innocent in themselves, become a fault in him, because his legal
avocations demand his attendance in another place. Thus those pleasures
may be lawful to another man, which are not so to him, because another
man has not the same obligation to a calling, the same necessity to
apply to it, the same cry of a family, whose bread may depend upon his
diligence, as a tradesman has.

Solomon, the royal patron of industry, tells us, 'He that is a lover of
pleasure, shall be a poor man.' I must not doubt but Solomon is to be
understood of tradesmen and working men, such as I am writing of, whose
time and application is due to their business, and who, in pursuit of
their pleasures, are sure to neglect their shops, or employments, and I
therefore render the words thus, to the present purpose--'The tradesman
that is a lover of pleasure, shall be a poor man.' I hope I do not wrest
the Scripture in my interpretation of it; I am sure it agrees with the
whole tenor of the wise man's other discourses.

When I see young shopkeepers keep horses, ride a-hunting, learn
dog-language, and keep the sportsmen's brogue upon their tongues, I will
not say I read their destiny, for I am no fortuneteller, but I do say, I
am always afraid for them; especially when I know that either their
fortunes and beginnings are below it, or that their trades are such as
in a particular manner to requir