Now you have returned to school it is my duty to point out to you how absolutely necessary it is for your future success that you should persevere in your studies, more especially if you wish to leave college (for which you are destined) with honour. Do not be carried away with the natural love of ease and pleasure, but accustom yourself at once to really hard work. If you cannot reconcile yourself to do so in your youth you will be unable to do so as you grow older, and you will become incapable of achieving anything great. Application may be difficult at first, but when once you have accustomed yourself to it you will find study pleasant, easy, and agreeable, and in years to come you will be well repaid for the toil and trouble you now undergo. What can be pleasanter than to find yourself at the head of your school, leaving all competitors behind? what more gratifying than to give pleasure to your father and mother, and to obtain the admiration and approval of your teachers? That, dear boy, will be your reward if you study constantly and patiently; but if you neglect the opportunities offered to you now, your future life will be nothing but disquietude, and you will grow up ignorant, and be despised. Pay attention to my advice, and work in the morning of your days. With your mother's best love and mine, Believe me, Your ever affectionate father, R. R. ---- _Reply to a Letter from a young Man informing his Uncle he had contracted Debts._ Soltney, March 4th, 187- MY DEAR NEPHEW, I was indeed deeply grieved on the receipt of your letter to find you had forgotten, or at least not acted up to the advice I gave you--to pay for everything you purchased at once, and not to go into debt on any account. I must put things before you now in a plain unvarnished manner, and give you my opinion, formed after many years' experience. The man who contracts debts which he is unable to pay, more especially for articles of useless luxury, is much more culpable than the poor creature who, distracted by all the miseries of his starving family at home, rushes into the first shop he sees and steals something to relieve their necessities. When men find themselves encumbered with debts which they are unable to pay, mean subterfuges are resorted to; applications for delay of payment are made--and granted, without any good result; the final crash comes at last: the patience and temper of the tradesmen become exhausted, they have recourse to their legal remedy, and wretchedness and beggary are the result.