"If thou be visite with pouerte Take it not to hevyle For he that sende the adversite May turn the agen to wele. Purpose thy selfe in charite Demene thy worschip in honeste Let not nygardschip haue the maystre For schame that may befalle Faver not meche thy ryeches, Set not lytel by worthynes Kepe thyn hert from dowblenes For any manner thyng." Another budget of excellent precepts will commend itself to the thoughtful reader in the following:--"He who buys what he does not want will want what he cannot buy"; "Winter finds out what summer has laid up"; "Sleeping master makes servant lazy"; "Thrush paid for is better than turkey owed for"; "Better small fish than empty dish"; "He that borrows binds himself with his neighbour's rope"; "A man must plough with such oxen as he hath"; "He goes like a top, no longer than he is whipped"; "Better half a loaf than no bread"; "Better do it than wish it done"; "He that goes borrowing goes sorrowing"; "Better say here it is, than here it was"; "If you light the fire at both ends the middle will take care of itself." Some three hundred years ago an old writer thought out what he called "the ladder to thrift," and these were some of his hints: "To take thy calling thankfully And shun the path to beggary. To grudge in youth no drudgery, To come by knowledge perfectly. To plow profit earnestlie, But meddle not with pilferie. To hold that thine is lawfullie For stoutness or for flatterie. To suffer none live idlelie For feare of idle knaverie. To answere stranger ciuilie, But show him not thy secresie. To vse no friend deceitfully, To offer no man villeny. To learne how foe to pacifie, But trust him not too trustilie. To meddle not with vsurie Nor lend thy monie foolishlie. To loue thy neighbor neighborly And shew him no discurtesy. To learne to eschew ill company And such as liue dishonestlie." Though quaintly put--and their quaintness is accentuated by spelling such as would not at all pass muster in these iron-bound days of examinations for high and low, rich and poor--these halting couplets contain a full modicum of excellent common-sense. It is not really the man whose possessions are few who is poor as he whose desires are great, and it has been well said that if we help some one who is worse off than ourselves we soon realise that we are more affluent than we thought. The helping to bear another's burden does not add to our own, but lightens it.