Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/383

Rh books, the whole may be made linear, and a single glance of the eye suffices to any man who has resolution enough to know the state of his affairs at setting out, or to get it done for him, and to form a judgment of what he can and what he cannot afford to expend.

"Of all the follies the greatest is that, which formerly was practised and is still continued in some great families, that of having some considerable lawyer or some eminent man of business at a considerable salary to audit your accounts. There is a family whose fortune was entirely made by the father's auditing the accounts of different estates, which many of the owners were infinitely more capable of auditing. It is generally understood, that when a very great family in London found themselves much distressed, they could not, from motives of false shame, dismiss an auditor who had 400l. for 500l., for doing what they could so much better do themselves, besides saving the salary, which would have proved a very seasonable relief. Dealers in money, like butchers who deal in blood, lose all manner of feeling for that by which they get their livelihood, and it is next to impossible that men who serve many masters or indeed more than one, should be capable of much attachment.

"Let it be always remembered that saints are rare to be found after a certain age, an observation which holds good even of the clergy.

"The Christian world has ever been divided into two parts, clergy and laity, distinguished both by dress and manners from each other. The clergy everywhere affect a superiority, and in consequence claim to be indulged with peculiar power and privileges. It was natural that when this pre-eminence was once established in the minds of the degraded laity, the clergy should get the countenance of the legislature for the framing of laws, not only to preserve their own dignity, but to prevent the interference of the people in ecclesiastical concerns. Hence ecclesiastical courts, ecclesiastical ranks and titles, eccle-