PARSIMONY.

1. PARSIMONY* is mistaken selfishness. Greedily fond of wealth, the parsimonious man denies himself comforts, as well as enjoyments, rather than part with. any portion of the wealth he has acquired; and so fearful, indeed, is he of doing this, that he will frequently lose an opportunity of quadrupling+ his possessions, through a parsimonious fear of losing what he already has.

2. The parsimonious generally defend themselves by an appeal to the necessity and usefulness of economy.t But PARSIMONY is as distinct from economy as profusion is from generosity.

3. ECONOMY is a just mean; PARSIMONY is an odious, selfish, and ridiculous extreme. The Economist saves, that he may not want; the Parsimonious man wants, that he may save. The one guards against a possible evil; the other inflicts that evil upon himself and others, though he possesses the means of warding it off; and locks those means up to moulders and lie useless, which, properly applied, would both increase themselves, and provide him with comforts and necessaries.

4. Such a man would think a person foolish, who should jump into a deep and rapid river, lest he should at

* Frugality; covetousness; niggardliness.

+ Increasing fourfold; making a quantity four times greater.

Frugality; discreet regulation of expense; prudent management of a family, or government of a household; disposition of things; the disposition or arrangement of any works; system of matter; distribution of every thing to its proper place. (See the Essay on ECONOMY.)

§ TO MOULDER, is (literally,) to turn to dust; to perish in dust; to diminish; to wear or waste away; to decay; to crumble. Figuratively, it implies, to lie useless; to be hoarded until covered with dust.

some future time be drowned. Yet is his own conduct equally unreasonable.

5. Parsimonious persons are unjust to themselves, and to all dependent upon or connected with them. Indeed, they are, to a certain extent, unjust to every individual in society as that which they hoard in mouldering inactivity, would, if circulated, profit indirectly every individual concerned in trade.

6. PARSIMONY is a mean and contemptible vice; and it is too frequently practised by those who have previously found the inconvenience of the other extreme,

PROFUSION.

7. Our duty is to act with, and for, the society in which our lot is cast; and this duty extends to our property as well as to our persons. PROFUSION is madness, certainly; yet PARSIMONY is, as truly, but another kind of madness.

8. The parsimonious are generally fretful and suspicious; and those of them who are considered honest, are, in fact, but barely so. He who is unjust to himself, and his own immediate connections, is rarely very scrupulously just to others, who must necessarily be less dear to him.

9. PARSIMONY is represented by the figure of a matron, meanly dressed in a red-coloured drapery, holding a pair of compasses* in her right hand, and in her left a bag of money, with the motto, "In melius servat."

10. She is represented as a matron, as it is at that time of life that a parsimonious disposition is most predominant.t The mean dress and red-coloured drapery, (red

• An instrument composed of two legs of metal, joined at one end by a spreading joint, and used to draw circles with.

+ Prevalent; supreme in influence; ascendant.

being a cheap colour,) indicate anxiety to avoid expense. The compasses signify, that persons of this disposition anxiously regulate every expense with the most scrupulous exactitude; and also denote, that they should strictly study to keep within the bounds of justice and honesty.

11. The purse, and the motto upon it, denote, that PARSIMONY is more anxious to preserve what she already has in possession, than solicitous to procure those things which she requires.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

1. What is PARSIMONY? (Text and note.) What are the characteristics of the parsimonious man?

2. How do the parsimonious generally defend their meanness? In what do Parsimony and Economy differ? 2, 3.

3. Describe the difference between the Economist and the Parsimo

nious man. 4. Exemplify the conduct of the latter.

5. Are parsimonious persons unjust? To whom?

6. Is parsimony a vice? By whom is it frequently practised?

7. What is it our duty to do?

8. Does parsimony affect the temper or disposition of persons? Are parsimonious persons strictly honest ?

9. How is PARSIMONY represented? 10, 11. Explain the emblems.

ECONOMY.

1. ECONOMY is the purse-bearer of liberality* and the parent of independence. Without economy, a man can neither be happy nor independent; and, indeed, without it, few can scarcely be honest.

2. That a man should voluntarily deprive himself of the means of serving the unfortunate, and procuring

Generosity; bounty; munificence.

Freedom; exemption from reliance or control; a state requiring

no assistance.

comfort and consideration for himself, would be incredible, if instances of such insane conduct were not, unhappily, too common to leave room for incredulity.*

3. He who wantonly wastes and dissipates his property, is like the mariner who should destroy his compass, and thus deliver himself up to the perils of the ocean and this resemblance is the closer, because the folly of each involves others in its evil consequences. He who squanders his means upon useless extravagancies, cannot follow the dictates of his heart, if he be ever so much inclined to benevolence; and, by rendering himself incapable of discharging just demands upon him, he plunges himself into a species of slavery, the most galling and irksome, to an honourable spirit, that can be imagined.

4. In vain does he yearn to administer comfort to the afflicted, bread to the hungry, or apparel to the naked. His heart may glow with the warmest and best feelings of which our nature is susceptible; but his self-inflicted poverty condemns him to the painful necessity of withholding relief from those whom he pities, and assistance from those whom he loves.

5. But these are not all the evils which result from want of Economy. It is also the fruitful parent of innumerable CRIMES. Not only does it prevent the exercise of VIRTUE, but it tempts to the practice of VICE.

6. MEANNESS, from which his soul would otherwise revolt, the unhappy victim of extravagance is frequently compelled to resort to, in order to sustain his useless and wretched existence. Wearied by incessant importunity, his friends at length perceive that his case is utterly hopeless.

* Unbelief; hardness of belief.

7. Resolved not to inconvenience themselves farther, they turn a deaf ear to his applications, and all the abject horrors of starvation present themselves to him; rendered the more terrible by perpetual, though unavailing, reminiscence* of the means he has possessed and abused.

8. CRIME too frequently results from this state; and he who might have enjoyed all the goods of this life; who might have saved a sinking friend, relieved the wretched, and aided in diffusing intelligence; and the natural result of intelligence-VIRTUE,-among his less. fortunate fellow-creatures, closes a wretched life, by an ignominious death, or drags on a squalid existence in the workhouse.

9. Having thus described the effects of a neglect of it, we entreat our young friends to accustom themselves to a systematic ECONOMY; but, at the same time, to avoid parsimonyt. AVARICE, as our description of it will teach, is by no means necessary to economy. Contrariwise, it is incompatible with it; for ECONOMY, like all the other virtues, consists in a proper medium.

10. It is, in fact, a due medium between reckless extravagance and niggard || selfishness. There is scarcely any virtue, the practice of which produces more good, or the neglect of it more evil, than economy.

11. ECONOMY is iconically represented by the figure of a respectable matron, simply attired, and wearing a

* Recollection; remembrance; recovery of ideas.

See the Essay on PARSIMONY.

See the Essay on AVARICE.

Unsuitable; not agreeing; inconsistent.

Sordid; avaricious; parsimonious; sparing; wary.