ed to take
him in partner.

'A very good thing, indeed! so you must take Timothy into half the trade
when he is out of his time, for fear he should run away with
three-quarters of it, when he sets up for himself. But had not the
master much better have been Timothy himself?--then he had been sure
never to have the customers take Timothy for the master; and when he
went away, and set up perhaps at next door, leave the shop, and run
after him.'

It is certain, a good servant, a faithful, industrious, obliging
servant, is a blessing to a tradesman, and, as he said, is an estate to
his master; but the master, by laying the stress of his business upon
him, divests himself of all the advantages of such a servant, and turns
the blessing into a blast; for by giving up the shop as it were to him,
and indulging himself in being abroad, and absent from his business, the
apprentice gets the mastery of the business, the fame of the shop
depends upon him, and when he sets up, certainly follows him. Such a
servant would, with the master's attendance too, be very helpful, and
yet not be dangerous; such a servant is well, when he is visibly an
assistant to the master, but is ruinous when he is taken for the master.
There is a great deal of difference between a servant's being the stay
of his master, and his being the stay of his trade: when he is the
first, the master is served by him; and when he is gone, he breeds up
another to follow his steps; but when he is the last, he carries the
trade with him, and does his master infinitely more hurt than good.

A good tradesman has a great deal of trouble with a bad servant, but
must take heed that he is not wounded by a good one--the extravagant
idle vagrant servant hurts himself, but the diligent servant endangers
his master. The greater reputation the servant gets in his business, the
more care the master has upon him, lest he gets within him, and worms
him out of his business.

The only way to prevent this, and yet not injure a diligent servant, is
that the master be as diligent as the servant; that the master be as
much at the shop as the man. He that will keep in his business, need
never fear keeping his business, let his servant be as diligent as he
will. It is a hard thing that a tradesman should have the blessing of a
good servant, and make it a curse to him, by his appearing less capable
than his man.

Let your apprentice be in the business, but let the master be at the
head o