Do
not think your estate your own, while any man can call upon you for
money which you cannot pay; therefore, begin with timorous parsimony.
Let it be your first care not to be in any man's debt.
'When the thoughts are extended to a future state, the present life
seems hardly worthy of all those principles of conduct, and maxims of
prudence, which one generation of men has transmitted to another; but
upon a closer view, when it is perceived how much evil is produced, and
how much good is impeded by embarrassment and distress, and how little
room the expedients of poverty leave for the exercise of virtue, it
grows manifest that the boundless importance of the next life enforces
some attention to the interests of this.
'Be kind to the old servants, and secure the kindness of the agents and
factors; do not disgust them by asperity, or unwelcome gaiety, or
apparent suspicion. From them you must learn the real state of your
affairs, the characters of your tenants, and the value of your
lands[483].
'Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell; I think her expectations from air
and exercise are the best that she can form.
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