, 1862-07-31


borrow on your character it is your character that
you leave IN pawn. The property to you is price
less, and the loan that subjects It to be pledge
unredeemed is-a tri6e.
Young friend, be thou patrician or plebeian,
learn to say mo" at the first 10 your charming
acquaintance. The worst that the No can inaict
on you is q privation-a want--always short Of
starvation. No young man, with the average
health Of youth, need be in danger Of starvation.
But despite that privation or want, your youth
itself is such riches that there is not urseproud
cd millionaire Of sixty who provided your good
name be unsoiled, would not deljghtedly change
with you. BE contented Say No! Keep un-
scathed the good name keep out OF peril the honor,
without which even yon battered old soldier, who
is hobblng into his grave on halEpay and wooden
Leg, would not change with Achilles.
/ could quote pages. by writers OF
no mean ability, to show that common honesty is
vulgar error. So that in fact, II ! were to de-
liver up my whole self to the arbitrament Of spe-
cal pleaders. today might be argued into an
atheist, and tomorrow into pickpocket. There
fore say to the young man about entering life as
free agent, Whichever you are tempted to do
something which you have been brought up by
honest parents and teachers to know to be wrong.
rather do it than argue about It. Without, an ar
gnment you may commit the fault, repent, and
conviction that you have done wrong but il you
once make the wrong az open question, and con-
sent to argue with perhaps more practised casuist
than yoursel-his argument taking part with your
temptation-then the chance Is that you do more
than wrong thing; that you do wrong upon phi
losophcal system, and will very soon substitute
custom for conscience. Never be argued out Of
your soul. never be argued out Of your honor, and
never be argued into believing that soul and honor
do not run terrible risk il you limp into life with
the load Of debt on your shoulders, and, as the
debt grows heavy and heavier, the hiss Of some
lying fend in your ear 4: Shake it of; you need
not be bankrupti there is an alternative" 80
heavensl what alternative sayT and the fend
whispers low, suasiye words-ior the fends argue
well-suasive words which. put in plain English,
mean this: Be q cheat; be swindler."
Shake hands, brave young friend; we are agreed
You consent to have horror Of debt You will
abstain, you will pinch, you will work harder, and
harder and harder, Il neediul. You will not stink
through the crowd as a debtor.
Now comes the next danger. You viii not in
cur debt Tor yourself but you have friend. Py-
thias, your friend, your familiar the man you like
best and see most Of, says to you, Damon, be my
security-your name to this bill" Heaven forbid
that should cry out to Damon, Pythias means
to cheat thee-bewarep But address to Damon
that three, six or twelve months hence he will pay
to another man, say to Dionysius, so many pounds
sterling" Here your first duty as an honest man
is not to Pythias, but to Dionysius. Suppose some
accident happen-one Of those accidents which,
however impossible it may seem to your Pythias,
constantly happen to the Pythiases Of other Da-
mons who draw hills on the bank Of Futurity;
suppose that the smut or the rain spoil the crops
on which Pythias relies, or the cargoes he expects
from Marseilles, California, Utopia, 60 down to
the b0ttomless seas-Dionyshs must come upon
you! Can you pay to Dionysius what you pledge
yourself to pay to him in spite Of those accidents?
He thinks those accidents not only possible, but
probable or he would not require your surety, nor
charge 90 per cent. for his loan and, therefore,
since he clearly doubts Pythias, his real trust is in
you.. Do you merit the trust? Can you pay the
money il Pythias cannot and, allowing that you
can pay the money, are yOnr other obligations in
life such as to warrant that sacrifice TO Friendship?
II you cannot pay or II you owe il to Others more
sacred than Pythias himself-owe It to your pa
rents, your plighted bride or welded wife. or the
children to whom, what, before their birth, was
your fortune, has become the trustmOney for their
provision not to hazard for Pythas that for which,
if lost, not you alone but others must sueT-then.
do not common duty and common honesty forbid
You to say, am surety 10 Pythas for that which
Il belongs not to Pythias but to Chance to fulfil p
am the last man to say, Z" Do not help your
friend" if you honorably can. II we have money,
we manage it IN when we cannot help friend at
pinch But the plain fact is this: Pythias wants
money. Can you give il, at whatever stint to
yourself, in Justice to others? II you can, and
YOU value Pythias more than the money, give the
money, and there is an end Of Il but Il you can
not give the money, don't sign the bill. Do not
become what, in rude truth, you do become-a
knave and a liar-if you guarantee to do what
you know you cannot do, should the guarantee be
exncted. He is generous who gives; he who lends
NAV be generous also; but only on one condition,
viz, that he can afford to give what he can afford
to lend OF the two, therefore, It is safer, friend
lier cheaper in the long run to give than to lend.
Give, and you may keep your friend IL you lose
your money; lend, and the chances are that you
lose your friend if ever you get back your money.
But IL you do lend, let il be with the full convic
ton that the loan is gin, and count il among the
rarest favOrs Of Providence il you be ever rpaid.
Lend to Pythias on the Understandings This is
a loan IL you can ever repay me. shall, how
ever, make this provision against the chance Of a
quarrel between us, that you cannot repay me,
il stands as gin"
And whatever you lend. let it be your money,
and not your name. Money you may get again,
and if not, you may contTive to do without it F;
name once lost yOr' cannot get again. and, if you
can contrive to do without il, you had better never
have been born With honor, poverty is Noble
without honor, wealth is a Pauper. Is 4 not 50 J
Every young man not corrupted says Yes" II
is only some wretched old cynic, no drop Of warm
blood in bis veins, who says, Life is boon with
out honor"
But if a Jew knock at your door, and show you
a bill with your name as q promise 10 pay, and
the bill be dishonored pray, what becomes Oi your
nameg
my namei" alters Damon; /" I am butasureiy
go to Pythias."
sPythiss has bolted!"
Paythe bin, Damon. or goodbye to your hopor
faTdon ny prohIliy eirpes'n.ss : . ". u ns. -