The Way to Wealth
本杰明·富兰克林 / Benjamin Franklin
Courteous Reader,
I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure, as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors. This pleasure I have seldom enjoyed; for though I have been, if I may say it without vanity, an eminent author of almanacs annually now a full quarter of a century, my brother authors in the same way, for what reason I know not, have ever been very sparing in their applause, and no other author has taken the least notice of me, so that did not my writings produce me some solid pudding, the great deficiency of praise would have quite discouraged me.
I concluded at length, that the people were the best judges of my merit; for they buy my works; and besides, in my rambles, where I am not personally known, I have frequently heard one or other of my adages repeated with“ as Poor Richard says ”at the end on it; this gave me some satisfaction, as it showed not only that my instructions were regarded, but discovered likewise some respect for my authority; and I own, that to encourage the practice of remembering and repeating those wise sentences, I have sometimes quoted myself with great gravity.
Judge, then, how much I must have been gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you. I stopped my horse lately where a great number of people were collected at a vendue of merchant goods. The hour of sale not being come, they were conversing on the badness of the times and one of the company called to a plain clean old man, with white locks,“ Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Won’t these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?” Father Abraham stood up, and replied, “If you’d have my advice, I’ll give it to you in short, for a word to ‘the wise is enough, and many words won’t fill a bushel’, as Poor Richard says.” They joined in desiring him to speak his mind, and gathering round him, he proceeded as follows:
“Friends,” says he, “and neighbors, the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken to good advice, and something may be done for us; ‘God helps them that help themselves’, as Poor Richard says, in his Almanack of 1733.”
“It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service. But idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckon all that is spent in absolute sloth, or doing of nothing, with that which is spent in idle employments, or amusements, that amount to nothing. Sloth, by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life. ‘Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears’; while ‘the used key is always bright’, as Poor Richard says. But ‘dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of’, as Poor Richard says. How much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that ‘the sleeping fox catches no poultry’ and that ‘there will be sleeping enough in the grave’, as Poor Richard says.”
“‘If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be’, as Poor Richard says, the greatest prodigality; since, as he elsewhere tells us, ‘lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough, always proves little enough’. Let us then up and be doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity. ‘Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy’, as Poor Richard says; ‘and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night’; ‘while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him’, as we read in Poor Richard, who adds, ‘drive thy business, let not that drive thee’, and ‘early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise’.”