"31. When another speaks, be attentive yourself, and disturb not the audience. If any hesitate in his words, help him not nor prompt him without being desired; interrupt him not nor answer him until his speech be ended. "32. Treat with men at right times about business, and whimper not in the company of others. "33. Be not in haste to relate news, if you know not the truth thereof. "34. Be not curious to know the affairs of others; neither approach those that speak in private. "35. Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise. "36. When your masters or superiors talk to anybody, hearken not, nor speak or laugh. "37. Speak not evil of the absent; for it is unjust. "38. Make no show of taking delight in your victuals; feed not with greediness; cut your food with a knife, and lean not on the table; neither find fault with what you eat. "39. Be not angry at the table, whatever happens; and, if you have reason to be so, show it not, but put on a cheerful face, especially if there be strangers; for good humor makes of one dish a feast. "40. If you speak of God or his attributes, let it be seriously, in reverence; and honor and obey your parents. "41. Let your recreations be manful, not sinful. "42. Labor to keep in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience." Now, does it not strike you, my dear children, as being most truly wonderful that it should have ever entered the mind of a boy of thirteen to lay down for his own guidance and self-improvement such rules and principles as these I have just repeated? It certainly must. And yet when I tell you that he strictly adhered to them through life, and squared his conduct by them daily, you will, no doubt, think it quite unreasonable that he could have been other than the good and great man he was. These writings I have mentioned filled several quires of paper; and together with his business papers, letters, journals, and account-books, written later in life, and with the same neatness and precision, are still preserved at Mount Vernon with pious care; and are even now to be seen by those who go on pilgrimages to that sacred spot, although, since many of them were penned, more than a hundred years have come and gone.