Whence yet from Tibur's Sabine vale But fee where yonder penfive fage And stunn'd by every horrid found, He afks a clue for nature's ways; But evil haunts him through the maze : O thou, whofe pleafing power I fing, Till. Till fields and fhades their fweets exhale, O thou, whose pleasing power I fing, If right I touch the votive string, I court the Mufe's healing fpell INDUSTRY INDUSTRY RECOMMENDED*. VE ERY few people are good œconomifts of their fortune, and still fewer of their time; and yet, of the two the latter is the most precious. I heartily wish you to be a good œconomist of both; and you are now of an age to begin to think seriously of these two important articles. Young people are apt to think they have fo much time before them, that they may fquander what they please of it, and yet have enough left; as very great fortunes have frequently feduced people to a ruinous profufion. Fatal miftakes, always repented of, but always too late! Old Mr. Lowndes, the famous fecretary of the treasury, in the reigns of king William, queen Ann, and king George the First, used to say, "Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves." This holds equally true as to time; and I moft earneftly recommend to you the care of thofe minutes and quarters of hours, in the course of the day, which people think too fhort to deferve their attention; and yet, if fummed up at the end of the year, would amount to a very confiderable portion of time. For G 6 example :: example, you are to be at such place at twelve, by appointment: you go out at eleven, to make two or three vifits first; those persons are not at home: instead of fauntering away that intermediate time at a coffeehouse, and poffibly alone; return home; write a letter, beforehand, for the enfuing poft, or take up a good book, I do not mean Defcartes, Mallbranche, Locke, or Newton, by way of dipping; but fome book of rational amufement; and detached pieces, as Horace, Boileau, Waller, La Bruyere, &c. This will be fo much time faved, and by no means ill employed. Many people lose a great deal of time by reading: for they read frivolous and idle books; fuch as the abfurd romances of the two laft centuries, where characters, that never exifted, are infipidly difplayed, and fentiments, that were never felt, pompously defcribed; tlie oriental ravings and extravagancies of the Arabian Nights, and Mogul Tales; and fuch fort of idle frivolous stuff, that nourishes and improves the mind, just as much as whipped cream would the body. Stick to the beft eftablished books in every language; the celebrated poets, hiftorians, orators, or philofophers. By these means (to use a city metaphor) you will make fifty per cent of that time, of which others do not make above three or four, probably nothing at all. Many people lofe a great deal of their time by lazinefs; they loll and yawn in a great chair, tell them felves |