If these are facts, they show the importance of early attending to instruction. And that you, my young friend, blooming with virgin beauty, unsullied with vice, and unimpaired with age; that you may shun those pernicious practices that will lead you in shame and disgrace, and pursue those paths that will lead you to honor and dignity in the world, and gain you a name that is more valuable than silver or gold, I leave you the following RULES. 1. Keep a due regard over all your thoughts, and see that they are intent upon the business in which you are employed, that you may pay a proper attention to the same. Nothing is more dangerous than an absent mind. It is rude to indulge the thoughts to rove upon indifferent objects, even when you are in company; but more especially when attending to your domestic concerns. If your thoughts are not mostly engaged in the business before you, time will steal away faster than you are aware of; night will come on before you are ready for it, many things must go undone that you ought to have attended to, and that which you have done will be apt to be slighted, or done to the halves; and you will thereby get to yourself rebukes and reproaches, which you might have easily prevented, and you will now begin to repent when it is too late to mend a bad day’s work. By indulging an absent mind, young people are apt to be deaf to all that is said to them, or at least, it does not make an abiding impression on their minds; by which means they are apt to do their work wrong, have it to undo, and do over again, and sometimes spoil it in the end; which will make them feel very much chagrined, and also it will fret, perplex, and weary the patience of those who employ them. All this might have been easily avoided by care and attention; and not only so, but you would improve in your business, and thereby make it become habitual and easy. You cannot expect to become master of any kind of business, without much care and attention; and this ought to make you more studious in the same, for remember, that there is no business that you will be likely to be called to attend to, now when young, but what (if you should ever have a family of your own) you must attend to the same for yourself, or at least, have it attended to; and therefore it is highly necessary that you should now become master of it. This is what ought to excite your mind now when young, that you may be well qualified to be mistress of your own family; and even if you should never have any family, this will do you no harm. 2. Never flatter yourself that you know how the business should be done better than your teachers; therefore hear with patience their instructions, and always be submissive to their directions.