have read in a book, but as a truth I feel in my own heart, that to fear God and keep his commandments, will not only bring a man peace at last, but will make him happy _now_. And I will venture to say, sir, that all the stocks, pillories, prisons, and gibbets in the land, though so very needful to keep bad men in order, yet will never restrain a good man from committing evil half so much as that single text, _How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?_" Dr. Shepherd condescended to approve of what the farmer had said, kindly shook him by the hand, and took leave. PART II. THE WAY TO PLENTY; OR, THE SECOND PART OF TOM WHITE. WRITTEN IN 1795, THE YEAR OF SCARCITY. Tom White, as we have shown in the first part of this history, from an idle post boy was become a respectable farmer. God had blessed his industry, and he had prospered in the world. He was sober and temperate, and, as was the natural consequence, he was active and healthy. He was industrious and frugal, and he became prosperous in his circumstances. This is the ordinary course of Providence. But it is not a certain and necessary rule. _God maketh his sun to shine on the just and on the unjust._ A man who uses every honest means of thrift and industry, will, in most cases, find success attend his labors. But still, the _race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong_. God is sometimes pleased, for wise ends, to disappoint all the worldly hopes of the most upright man. His corn may be smitten by a blight; his barns may be consumed by fire; his cattle may be carried off by distemper. And to these, and other misfortunes, the good man is as liable as the spendthrift or the knave. Success is the _common_ reward of industry, but if it were its _constant_ reward, the industrious would be tempted to look no further than the present state. They would lose one strong ground of their faith. It would set aside the Scripture scheme. This world would then be looked on as a state of reward, instead of trial, and we should forget to look to a day of final retribution.