It is doubtful if _Journeys Through Bookland_ contains any other selection so full of meat as this extract (Volume VI, page 407) from the writings of Benjamin Franklin; in fact, it is so full of wisdom on so many homely subjects and contains so much practical advice that no one can master it in a single reading. It is condensed to the utmost limit and every sentence should be weighed and considered. The wise maxims and old saws need to be expanded in thought, illustrated by example and applied to the reader's personal experience. As a whole it is not particularly attractive to young people, but every child can be attracted to parts of it. A little of it to-day, more of it next week, a third part some time in the future, and in time the whole will be assimilated. If the truths in this one selection are thoroughly embedded in the mind of a boy, if the traits of character here taught are made a part of him, he will be a sound man of business, a sensible head of a family and a valuable citizen in a community. _Poor Richard's Almanac_ contains the religion of work, of economy, of prosperity. It is a manly doctrine, a clear-cut, respectable philosophy, a reasonable rule of business activity. Never more than today were the precepts needed. The whole tendency of our modern activities is against its precepts. Disaster and ruin may be seen on every hand and traced directly to the neglect or violation of those sound principles which the wise old Franklin put in such homely words. These maxims of life and policy are not those which it is the special province of the school to teach. They are the elementary law which a boy or girl must learn in his home and see exemplified therein if they are ever to become a practical part of life's equipment. The wisdom of the _Almanac_ is the wisdom of practical experience, the wisdom of those who have lived and worked, who have lost and won. It does not deal with the finer phases of character, but with those practical things which lead to a bread-and-butter success. A boy who knows what _Poor Richard_ teaches and follows his precepts will be a business success. If a parent can grind into the character of his child these lessons of industry, simplicity, temperance and frugality he will have left a legacy more valuable a thousand times than the wealth he may have amassed, although that is reckoned by the millions. Because of the extreme condensation of the address by Father Abraham, the following outlines have been made to enable a parent to find easily what is wanted and to present it attractively. The selection is one of those which children will not master by themselves, but one which the parent can easily make interesting if he will follow the plans given below. Analysis I. (Page 409.) Taxes are heavy, but we are taxed: 1. Twice as much by our _Idleness_. 2. Three times as much by our _Pride_. 3. Four times as much by our _Folly_.