and is therefore
called, by way of eminence, _his business_, so it should be made the
chief delight of his life. The tradesman that does not love his
business, will never give it due attendance.

Pleasure is a bait to the mind, and the mind will attract the body:
where the heart is, the object shall always have the body's company. The
great objection I meet with from young tradesmen against this argument
is, they follow no unlawful pleasures; they do not spend their time in
taverns, and drinking to excess; they do not spend their money in
gaming, and so stock-starve their business, and rob the shop to supply
the extravagant losses of play; or they do not spend their hours in ill
company and debaucheries; all they do, is a little innocent diversion
in riding abroad now and then for the air, and for their health, and to
ease their thoughts of the throng of other affairs which are heavy upon
them, &c.

These, I say, are the excuses of young tradesmen; and, indeed, they are
young excuses, and, I may say truly, have nothing in them. It is perhaps
true, or I may grant it so for the present purpose, that the pleasure
the tradesman takes is, as he says, not unlawful, and that he follows
only a little innocent diversion; but let me tell him, the words are ill
put together, and the diversion is rather recommended from the word
_little_, than from the word _innocent_: if it be, indeed, but little,
it may be innocent; but the case is quite altered by the extent of the
thing; and the innocence lies here, not in the nature of the thing, not
in the diversion or pleasure that is taken, but in the time it takes;
for if the man spends the time in it which should be spent in his shop
or warehouse, and his business suffers by his absence, as it must do, if
the absence is long at a time, or often practised--the diversion so
taken becomes criminal to him, though the same diversion might be
innocent in another.

Thus I have heard a young tradesman, who loved his bottle, excuse
himself, and say, 'It is true, I have been at the tavern, but I was
treated, it cost me nothing.' And this, he thinks, clears him of all
blame; not considering that when he spends no money, yet he spends five
times the value of the money in time. Another says, 'Why, indeed, I was
at the tavern yesterday all the afternoon, but I could not help it, and
I spent but sixpence.' But at the same time perhaps it might be said he
spent five pounds' worth of time, his busines