Page:History of John M'Pherson, Dick Balf, and Gilder Roy.pdf/4



4                nothing of twisting a new horse shoe round like a gad; yet notwithstanding all his actıvity he was soon reduced to poverty, and so, from one step after another, brought to the gallows. Want of pre- caution and care in the beginning, often lays men under difficulties they can ne- ver surmount, and men that are bred up                in luxury and idleness, seldom settle themselves rightly to business after. No- thing is more commendable in youth than industry, it is the bulwark and preserva- tion of the commonwealth, and the sup- port of private persons and families. When vice has settled in the bone, no                medicine that can be applied to the flesh can expel it. Of this kind we have an                example before us. This John Macpher- son, when he had sold his little income, and spent what he had, was under the necessity of seeking for a livelhood some- how or other. He was a stranger to                work, and it was beneath him to beg, neither could he brook to rely on the courtesy of his friends, who (as it usual-                ly falls out in such cases) began to look very shy upon him. Upon this he began to think of a new way of living, and having provided