'Many estates are spent in the getting; Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting, And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.' "'If you would be wealthy (says he, in another Almanac), think of saving, as well as of getting; the Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than her incomes.' "Away then with your expensive follies, and you will not have much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable families; for, as poor Dick says, 'Women and wine, game and deceit, Make the wealth small, and the want great. "And, further, 'What maintains one vice, would bring up two children.' You may think, perhaps, that a little tea, or a little punch now and then, diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little entertainment now and then, can be no great matter; but remember what poor Richard says--'Many a little makes a mickle;' and further, 'Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship;' and again, 'Who dainties love shall beggars prove;' and moreover, 'Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.' "Here you are all got together at this sale of fineries and nick-nacks. You call them _goods_; but if you do not take care, they will prove _evils_ to some of you. You expect they will be sold cheap, and perhaps they may for less than they cost; but if you have no occasion for them, they must be dear to you. Remember what poor Richard says--'Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.' And again, 'At a great pennyworth pause awhile.' He means, that perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, or not real; or the bargain, by straitening thee in thy business, may do thee more harm than good. For in another place he says, 'Many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths.' Again, as poor Richard says, 'It is foolish to lay out money in a purchase of repentance:' and yet this folly is practised every day at auctions, for want of minding the Almanac. 'Wise men (as poor Dick says) learn by others' harms, fools scarcely by their own; but _Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum_.' Many a one, for the sake of finery on the back, have gone with a hungry belly, and half starved their families: 'Silk and satins, scarlet and velvets (as poor Richard says), put out the kitchen fire.' These are not the necessaries of life; they can scarcely be called the conveniences; and yet only because they look pretty, how many want to have them! The artificial wants of mankind thus become more numerous than the natural; and as poor Dick says, 'For one poor person there are a hundred indigent.' By these and other extravagances the genteel are reduced to poverty, and forced to borrow of those whom they formerly despised, but who, through industry and frugality, have maintained their standing; in which case it appears plainly, 'A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees,' as poor Richard says. Perhaps they have had a small estate