But although the creeping-in of luxury should be guarded against at the commencement of married life, people should learn how to grow rich gracefully. It is no part of wisdom to depreciate the little elegances and social enjoyment of our homes. These things refine manners and enlarge the heart. A gentleman told Dr Johnson that he had bought a suit of lace for his wife. The Doctor said: ‘Well, sir, you have done a good thing and a wise thing.’ ‘I have done a good thing,’ said the gentleman; ‘but I do not know that I have done a wise thing.’ ‘Yes, sir,’ continued the Doctor; ‘no money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as other people; and a wife is pleased that she is so dressed.’ We should be particular about money, but not penurious. The mistress of a well-ordered house takes broad and liberal views of things, and while cutting her coat according to her cloth, and as much as possible shielding her husband from the constant demand for money, which few masculine tempers can stand, she refrains from the wearying, petty economies which often enough are not worth the trouble and discomfort they entail. Economy is altogether different from penuriousness; for it is economy that can always best afford to be generous. Those who are careless about personal expenditure are often driven in the end to do very shabby things. Burns tells us that, ‘for the glorious privilege of being independent,’ we should ‘gather gear by every wile that’s justified by honour.’ ‘Do not accustom yourself,’ said Dr Johnson, ‘to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.’ Only the other day the writer was speaking to an officer in the army who was so far from considering the debt which he owed to his tailor as either an inconvenience or a calamity, that he seemed to be quite proud of it. ‘My tailor,’ said he, ‘never duns me for the money. When I have a pound or two which I don’t want, I send it to him, just as other people put it in a bank.’ It was no use telling him that five or ten per cent. on the amount of his bill was being charged every year, and that on a day when he least expected it, payment would be demanded. Had this officer never heard of the General Order which was issued by Sir Charles Napier, in taking leave of his command in India? Sir Charles strongly urged in that famous document that ‘honesty is inseparable from the character of a thorough-bred gentleman;’ and that ‘to drink unpaid-for champagne and unpaid-for beer, and to ride unpaid-for horses, is to be a cheat, and not a gentleman.’