Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/242

232 In our commercial towns upon the ſea-coaſt, fortunes will occaſionally be made. Some of thoſe who grow rich will be prudent, live within bounds, and preserve what they have gained for their poſterity: others, fond of ſhewing their wealth, will be extravagant, and ruin themſelves. Laws cannot prevent this: and perhaps it is not always an evil to the public. A ſhilling ſpent idly by a fool, may be picked up by a wiſer perſon, who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore not loſt. A vain, ſilly fellow builds a fine houſe, furniſhes it richly, lives in it expenſively, and in a few years ruins himſelf: but, maſons, carpenters, ſmiths, and other honeſt tradeſmen, have been by his employ aſſiſted in maintaining and raiſing their families; the farmer has been paid for his labour, and encouraged, and the eſtate is now in better hands.—In ſome caſes, indeed, certain modes of luxury may be a public evil, in the ſame manner as it is a private one. If there be a nation, for inſtance, that exports its beef and linen, to pay for the importation of claret and porter, while a great part of its people live upon potatoes, and wear no ſhirts; wherein does it differ from the ſot who lets his family ſtarve, and ſells his clothes to buy drink? Our American commerce is, I confeſs, a little in this way. We ſell our victuals to the iſlands for rum and ſugar; the ſubſtantial neceſſaries of life for ſuperfluities. But we have plenty, and live well nevertheleſs; though, by being ſoberer, we might be richer.

The vaſt quantity of foreſt land we have yet to clear, and put in order for cultivation, will for a long time keep the body of our nation laborious and frugal. Forming an opinion of our people and their manners, by what is ſeen among the inhabitants of the ſea-ports, is judging from