"Yes, my little man," the elder Benjamin added, "poverty is truly an 'estate in tail.' It descends from father to son; and it is supreme hard work to 'dock the entail' (as lawyers call it), I can tell you. As the mere casualty of birth ennobles the son of a noble, so, generally speaking, does it pauperize the son of the pauper. The majority of the rich have not been enriched by their own merits, boy, nor the mass of the poor impoverished by their own demerits. As a rule, the one class is no more essentially virtuous than the other is essentially vicious. The vagabond is often lineally descended from a long and ancient ancestry of vagabonds, even as the proudest peer dates his dignity from peers before the Conquest. The heraldry of beggary, however, is an unheard-of science. The patrician's pedigree forms part of the chronicles of the country; but who thinks of the mendicant's family tree? And yet, lad, the world might gather more sterling wisdom from the genealogy and antecedents of the one than the other. Who was the first beggar in the family? How did he get his patent of beggary? and how many generations of beggars have been begotten by this one man's folly or vice?' These are questions which few give heed to, my son, and yet they are pregnant with the highest philosophy, ay, and the most enlightened kindness."

The little fellow was too deeply touched with the suggestiveness of his uncle's queries to utter a word in reply. He was thinking how he should like to learn from the next beggar he met what had made him a beggar-he was thinking of the little beggar-children he had seen with their father and mother chanting hymns in the streets of Boston, and wondering whether they would grow up to be beggars in their turn, and bring their little ones up to beggary also.

"Moreover, I should tell you, lad," continued the uncle, after a brief pause, "that in the struggle of the transition of almost every race from a state of barbarism to civilization, possessions are mostly acquired by force of arms rather than by industry and frugality; for no sooner does the scrambling for the scanty wealth begin, than the strong seize not only upon the natural riches of the earth, but upon the very laborers themselves, and compel them to till the land as slaves for their benefit. But, putting these matters on one side, boy, what I am anxious to impress upon you now is, that even supposing right, rather than might, had prevailed at the beginning of organized society, and all had started fairly, producing for themselves, why, long before the second harvest had come round, some would have eaten up, and some would have wasted their first year's crop, and these must naturally have become the serfs of those who had saved theirs. Thus, then, the same broad distinctions as exist now among men would have sprung up, and the human world still have been separated into two great tribes-those who had plenty of breadstuff, and those who had none; while those who had no food of their own would be at the mercy of those who possessed a superabundance; so that not only would they be glad to be allowed to labor for the others' benefit, but even constrained to work for the veriest pittance that their masters chose to dole out to them."

Little Benjamin remained silent, conning the hard bit of worldly wisdom that had been for the first time revealed to him.

The uncle noticed the impression his words had made, and added, "Such, my little man, are the social advantages of prudence, and such the heavy penalties that men pay for lack of thrift in life. But, before we proceed any farther, Ben,

let us thoroughly comprehend what this same prudence means.'

The boy stared at his uncle as he awaited the explanation.

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In the first place, then," the godfather went on, we must not confound prudence with miserliness, nor even with meanness. To be miserly, my son, is as improvident as to be prodigal; for to hoard that which is of use chiefly in being used-in being used as a means of farther production-is as unwise as to squander it. To do this is to live a pauper's life amid riches, and thus not only to forestall the beggary that true prudence seeks to avoid, but to waste the wealth (by allowing it to remain idle) that is valuable only in being applied as the means of future benefit or enjoyment. To be mean, on the other hand, my lad, is to be either unjust or ignoble; and enlightened worldly discretion would prompt us to be neither, for there is no real prudence in ignoring the duties, the dignities, or even the charities of life."

"Tell me, then, uncle, what prudence really is," asked the boy, who was half bewildered now that he had learned what it was not.

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Why, prudence, my little fellow, is simply that wise worldly caution which comes of foresight regarding the circumstances that are likely to affect our own happiness. Morally considered, it is the heroism of enlightened selfishness-intellectually regarded, it is the judgment counseling the heart; while in a religious point of view it is the divine element of Providence' narrowed down to the limits of human knowledge and human vision. The learned man, Ben, exists mainly in the past; the thoughtless one lives only in the present; but the wise dwell principally in the future. And as the astronomer foresees the con

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junctions of planets, the recurrence of eclipses, and return of comets years ere they happen, so the true sage, in the great universe of circumstances surrounding our lives, has a prescience of the coming good or evil, and makes the benefits of to-day serve to mitigate the miseries of tomorrow."

"Dear me!" cried the youth, amazed at the glowing picture his godfather had given of the virtue, "why, I thought prudence merely meant - saving, uncle."

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Ay, and you thought saving, doubtlessly," added the tutor, sarcastically, "but a poor and paltry good after all. Youths mostly do think so, Ben; for it is but natural that to take any steps to avert the perils of old age at a time when they are most remote should appear to the inexperienced as being, to say the least, most premature. Nevertheless, Ben, saving is one of the means by which prudence seeks to change unusual luck into uniform benefit; to make the strokes of good fortune in the world so temper the heavy blows and disasters of life, that our days shall be one round of average happiness rather than (as they otherwise must be) a series of intermittent joys and miseries. But not only is it by saving, lad, that the enormities of surfeit at one particular time, and of griping want at another, are converted into the even tenor of general sufficiency, but without saving there could be no production of wealth in the world."

"How so, uncle ?" asked the younger Benjamin.

Why, boy," the other went on," in order to do any productive work, three things are always necessary: first, there must be something to go to work upon; secondly, there must be something to go to work with; and, thirdly, something wherewith to keep the workman while working-that

is to say, the workman, unless duly provided with materials, tools, and food, can do no work at all. A tailor, for instance, Ben, can not make a coat without cloth, or needles and thread; nor a carpenter build a house without a board, or a saw, or plane; nor a smith work without metal, or file, or hammer; nor, indeed, can any handicraftsman continue laboring without bite or sup' as well." "Of course they can't," assented the boy; "but still I can't make out what that has to do with saving, uncle."

"Simply this, lad," the godfather made answer. "Such things can be acquired only by husbanding the previous gains; for if none of the past year's yield were to be set aside as stock or capital for the next year's supply-if none of the corn grown, for example, were to be saved for seednone devoted to the maintenance of the smiths while manufacturing the implements wherewith to till the soil, and none laid by for the keep of the laborers while tilling it, there could not possibly be any farther produce."

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"Oh, I see!" the youth exclaimed. "I've often heard father talk of the capital' required to start a person in business, but hardly knew what he

meant."

"Yes, boy, I dare say," the other added; “and now you perceive that your father meant by it merely the wealth that is required to make more wealth; the stock that it is necessary to have in hand before any farther supply can be raised. Capital, Ben, is nothing more than the golden grain which has been husbanded as seed for the future golden crop-a certain store of wealth laid up for the purposes of farther production or of trade; and such store can be obtained, it is manifest, only by not consuming all we get. So absolutely indispensable, too, is this capital, or stock