Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/373

Rh and it is always recoverable. No man can be trusted with power over another. The heads of the most sensible men turn with it, and lose both their sense and memory; while fools, who form the great majority of mankind, have neither of these at any time. No gratitude can withstand power. Every man from the monarch down to the peasant is sure to abuse it. A man therefore must be ever upon his guard against any weakness, accident, momentary necessity, or effusion of heart, which can lead him to put himself in the power of another.

"As long as money is determined upon by the universal consent of all nations and of all men, savages excepted, as the Anima Mundi, and the universal sign of intercourse, which quickens every thing upon which man is dependent, in the first instance for necessities, next for luxuries, and lastly for all power of doing either good or harm, so long the first thing for a man's consideration is the right ordering of his private affairs; or in other words, of his receipts and expenditure.

"Since the powers of the mind can never be counted upon as forthcoming upon every occurrence, great or small, public or private, and since every man who has any predominant passion, such as most men commonly have, is alive to that, and mostly dead to every other consideration; every sensible man must lay down certain rules to govern his conduct, by which to guard against surprise or the effect of momentary weakness. Instinct suggests certain rules to every man to guide his physical conduct, such as not to attempt to pass a river without being certain that the stream be not out of his depth; and experience, in like manner, suggests certain rules equally indispensable for the government of his social conduct.

"Of these rules, two are essential. The first is, to be bound for no man. No man can afford it. If he has an overplus he is bound to give it, and if he is called upon by any particular ties, he will find it cheaper nine times in ten to give a part, be it what it may, which he can afford, than to be bound for the whole. A man who desires another to be bound for him, must either have a Rh