The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [323]
30. But this also is a fallacy. It is very unjust to find a tincture of vanity in a laudable action and to depreciate it on that account, or ascribe it entirely to that motive.
31. The case is not the same with vanity as with other passions.
32. Where avarice or revenge enters into any seemingly virtuous action, it is difficult for us to determine how far it enters, and it is natural to suppose it the sole actuating principle.
33. But vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions is so close to loving laudable actions for their own sake,
34. That these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection;
35. And it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former.
36. Thus in general, to love the glory of virtuous deeds is a sure proof of the love of virtue itself.
Epistle 3
1. And now, my dear son, to your own progress in the love of virtue!
2. I shall neither deny nor grudge you any money that may be necessary for either your improvement or your pleasures:
3. I mean the pleasures of a rational being. Under the head of improvement, I mean good books, education and lodging;
4. By rational pleasures I mean charities, presents, entertainments and other incidental calls of good company.
5. The only two articles I will never pay for are low riot, and the idle lavishness of negligence and laziness.
6. A fool squanders away, without credit or advantage to himself, more than a man of sense spends in getting both.
7. The latter employs his money as he does his time, and never spends anything of the one, nor a minute of the other, except in something that is either useful or rationally pleasing to himself or others.
8. But the fool buys whatever he does not want, and does not pay for what he does want.
9. He cannot withstand the charms of fripperies and low pleasures; others conspire with his own self-indulgence to cheat him;
10. In a very little time he is astonished, in the midst of ridiculous superfluities, to find himself lacking the real comforts and necessaries of life.
11. Without care and method, the largest fortune will not, and with them, almost the smallest will, supply all necessary expenses.
12. As far as you can possibly, pay ready money for everything and avoid credit.
13. Pay that money yourself, and not through the hands of others, who always require their portion.
14. Where you must use credit, pay it regularly every month, and with your own hand.
15. Never, from a mistaken economy, buy a thing you do not want, because it is cheap; or from pride, because it is dear.
16. Keep an account in a book of what you receive, and what you pay;
17. For no man who knows what he receives and pays ever runs out.
18. In economy, as well as in the rest of life, have the proper attention to proper objects, and the proper contempt for little ones.
19. A strong mind sees things in their true proportions; a weak one views them through a magnifying medium,
20. Which, like the microscope, makes an elephant of a flea: magnifies all little objects, but blinds one to great ones.
21. The sure characteristic of a sound and strong mind is to find in everything the proper boundaries of things.
22. In manners, this line is good breeding; beyond it, is troublesome ceremony; short of it, is unbecoming negligence and inattention.
23. In morals, it divides puritanism from vice: and, in short, every virtue from its kindred vice or weakness.
Epistle 4
1. Many young people are so light, so dissipated and so incurious, that they can hardly be said to see what they see, or hear what they hear.
2. That is, they hear in so superficial and inattentive a manner that they might as well not see nor hear at all.
3. For instance, if they see a public building, as a college, a hospital, an arsenal, they content themselves with the first glance,
4. And take neither the time nor the trouble of informing themselves of the material parts of them;
5. Which are the