I knew a philosopher that was excellently skilled in the science of astronomy, who told me he had some years studied for some proper allusion to explain to his scholars the phenomenon of the sun's motion round its own axis, and could never happen upon one to his mind, till by accident he saw his maid trundling her mop; surprised with the exactness of the motion to describe the thing he wanted, he goes into his study, calls his pupils about him, and tells them that Betty, who herself knew nothing of the matter, could show them the sun revolving about itself in a more lively manner than ever he could; accordingly, placing his scholars in a due position, opposite to her left side, so that they could see the end of the mop when it whirled round upon her arm, they took it immediately; there was the broad-headed nail in the centre, which was as the body of the sun, and the thrums whisking round, flinging the water about every way, by innumerable little streams, describing exactly the rays of the sun darting light from the centre to the whole system.

If ignorant Betty, by the natural consequence of her operation, instructed the astronomer, why may not the meanest shoemaker or pedlar, by the ordinary sagacity of his trading wit, dart some sudden thought into the mind of the observing tradesman, which he shall make his use of and apply to his own advantage in trade, when at the same time he that gives him such a hint shall himself, like the maid and her mop, know nothing of the matter?

Generally speaking, most tradesmen have some ways particular to themselves, which they either derived from masters who taught them, or from the experience of things, or from something in the course of their business which had not happened to them before.

Those little nostrums are oftentimes very properly, and with advantage, communicated from one to another; one tradesman finds out a nearer way of buying than another; another finds a vend for what is bought beyond what his neighbour knows of; and these, in time, come to be learnt of them by their ordinary conversation.

I am not for confining the tradesman from keeping better company, as it is called, as occasion and leisure require. The conversation of gentlemen may be used as a diversion or as an excursion; but his stated society must be with his neighbours and people in trade. Men of business are companions for men of business; with gentlemen he may converse pleasantly, but here he converses profitably. Tradesmen, as they always gain by trading together, so they never lose by conversing together; if they do not get money, they gain knowledge in business, improve their experience, and see further and further into the world.

A man of but an ordinary penetration will improve himself by conversing in matters of trade with men of trade; by the experience of the old tradesmen they learn caution and prudence; and by the rashness and the miscarriages of the young, they learn what are the mischiefs that themselves may be exposed to.

Again; in conversing with men of trade, they get trade; men first talk together, then deal together; many a good bargain is made, and many a pound gained, where nothing was expected before they met. The tradesmen's meetings are like the merchants' exchange, where they manage, negotiate, and frequently indeed beget business with one another.

But all this is to be done at suitable opportunities, and at spare hours, so as the times of business

are not broken in upon; for I would not be so understood, as if I were encouraging them to leave their shops and warehouses, to go to taverns and alehouses, and spend their time in unnecessary prattle, which ends in nothing but sotting and drinking; this is not meeting to do business, but to neglect business; of which I shall speak more fully in another place.

CHAP. V.

Of diligence and application in business.

SOLOMON was certainly a friend to men of business, as it appears by his frequent good advice to them. Prov. xviii. 9: he says, He that is slothful in business, is brother to him that is a great waster: and in another place, The sluggard shall be clothed in rags, Prov. xxiii. 1. On the contrary, by way of encouragement, he tells them, The diligent hand maketh rich, Prov. x. 4; and, The diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute.

Nothing can give a greater prospect of thriving to a young tradesman, than his own diligence; it fills him with hope, and gives him credit with all that know him: without application nothing in this world goes forward as it should do: let the man have the most perfect knowledge of his trade, and the best situation for his shop, yet, without application, nothing will go on. What is the shop without the master? What the books without the bookkeeper? The cash without the cashkeeper? What the credit without the man? I knew two negligent partners in a once well-accustomed shop, who drew two ways,

but both in extravagance; and I heard them justly painted out as follows, by an experienced trader, who had grown rich by a quite contrary conduct :

Such a shop, says he, stands well, and there is a good stock of goods in it, but there is nobody to serve but a prentice-boy or two, and an idle journeyman; one finds them always at play together, rather than looking out for customers; and when you come to buy, they look as if they did not care whether they showed you anything or no. You don't see a master in the shop if you go twenty times; nor anything that bears the face of authority. Then it is a shop always exposed; it is perfectly haunted with thieves and shoplifters; they see nobody but raw boys in it, that mind nothing; so that there are more outcries of Stop thief, at their door, and more constables fetched to that shop, than to all the shops in the street. There was a fine trade at that shop in Mr. Tradewell's time; he was a true shopkeeper; you never missed him from seven in the morning to twelve, and from two till nine at night; and he throve accordingly; he left a good estate behind him; but I don't know what these people are; they say there are two partners of them; but there had as good be none, for they are never at home, nor in their shop: one wears a long peruke and a sword, I hear; and you see him often at the ball, and at court, but very seldom in his shop, or waiting on his customers; and the other, they say, lies in bed till eleven o'clock every day; just comes into the shop and shows himself, then stalks about to the tavern to take a whet, then to the coffeehouse to hear the news; comes home to dinner at one, takes a long sleep in his chair after it, and about four o'clock comes into the shop for half an hour, or thereabouts: then to the tavern, where he stays till two in the morning, gets drunk,

and is led home by the watch, and so lies till eleven again; and thus he walks round like the hand of a dial. And what will it all come to? They'll certainly break; they can't hold it long.

Nor were the inferences unjust, any more than the description unlike; for such was quickly the end of such management.

Besides, customers love to see the master's face in the shop; when he cannot take the price offered, they are not disobliged; and if they do not deal at one time, they may at another; if they do deal, the master generally gets a better price for his goods than a servant can: besides which, he is sure to give better content; for the customers always think they buy cheaper of the master than of a journeyman, as he has a property in his own goods, and the journeyman is limited, and cannot exceed, as they think, the general directions of his master.

Trade must not be entered into as a thing of light concern; it is called business very properly, for it is a business for life, and ought to be followed as one of the great businesses of life. He that trades in jest, will certainly break in earnest; and this is one reason why so many tradesmen come to so hasty a conclusion of their affairs. It must be followed with a full attention of the mind, and full attendance of the person; nothing but what are to be called the necessary duties of life, are to intervene ; and even those are to be limited so as not to be prejudical to business.

The duties of life, which are either spiritual or secular, must not interfere with, nor justle one another out of its place. It is the duty of every Christian to worship God, to pay his homage morning and evening to his Maker, and at all other proper seasons to behave as becomes a sincere worshipper of God; nor must any avocation, however

C. E. T. I.

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