in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crouded together, that the wonderful immenfity of London confifts *."

CECONOMY.

On the fubject of wealth, the proper use of it, and the effects of that art which is called œconomy, Johnson once obferved, " It is wonderful to think how men of very large eftates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they fpend. Lord Shelburne told me, that a man of high rank, who looks into his own affairs, may have all that he ought to have, all that can be of any use, or appear with any advantage, for five thousand pounds a year. Therefore a great proportion must go

"I have often (fays Mr. Bofwell) amufed myfelf with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They, whofe narrow minds are contracted to the confideration of fome one particular purfuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the feat of government in its different departments; a grazier as a vaft market for cattle; a mercantile man, as a place where a prodigious deal of bufinefs is done upon 'Change; a dramatic enthufiaft, as the grand fcene of theatrical entertain. ments; a man of pleasure, as an affemblage of taverns, and the great emporium for ladies of eafy virtue. But the intelleQual man is ftruck with it, as comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhauftible."

in

in wafte; and indeed this is the cafe with most people, whatever their fortune is.”—BOSWELL. "I have no doubt, Sir, of this; but how is it? What is wafte?"—JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, breaking bottles and a thousand other things. Waste cannot be accurately told, though we are fenfible how deftructive it is. Economy

on the one hand, by which a certain income is made to maintain a man genteelly, and wafte on the other, by which, on the fame income, another man lives fhabbily, cannot be defined, It is a very nice thing; as one man wears his coat out much fooner than another, we cannot tell how."

On the right employment of wealth he re marked thus: "A man cannot make a bad ufe of his money fo far as regards Society, if he does not hoard it; for if he either fpends it, or lends it out, Society has the benefit. It is in general better to spend money than to give it away; for induftry is more promoted by fpending money than by giving it than by giving it away. A man who spends his money is fure he is doing good with it; he is not fo fure when he gives it away, A man who spends ten thousand a year will do more good than a man who spends two thoufand, and gives away eight."

His Ofellus, in the Art of living in London,' he has been heard to relate, was an Irifh

painter,

painter, whom he knew at Birmingham, and who had practised his own precepts of œconomy for feveral years in the British capital. He affured Johnson, who perhaps was then meditating to try his fortune in London, but was apprehensive of the expence, "that thirty pounds a year

was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible. He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He faid a man might live in a garret at eighteen pence a week; few people would enquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was cafy to fay,

Sir, I am to be found at fuch a place.' By fpending threepence in a coffee-house, he might be for fome hours every day in very good company; he might dine for fixpence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny, and do without fupper. On clean fhirt-day he went abroad, and paid vifits." talk of this frugal friend,

Johnson would often whom he recollected.

with esteem and kindness, and did not like to have any one fmile at the recital. "This man

(faid he gravely) was a very fenfible man, who perfectly understood common affairs; a man of a great deal of knowledge of the world, fresh from life, not ftrained through books, He borrowed a horfe and ten pounds at Birmingham. Finding himself mafter of fo much money, he fet off for Weft Chefter, in order

tq

.

He returned the horfe, and pounds too, after he got

to get to Ireland. probably the ten home."

"Get

To Mr. Bofwell Johnfon once faid, as much force of mind as you can. Live within your income. Always have fomething faved at the end of the year. Let your imports be more than your exports, and you'll never go far wrong."

A gentleman praised the accuracy of an aecount book of a lady whom he mentioned. Johnfon faid, “ Keeping accounts, Sir, is of no use when a man is fpending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat lefs beef to-day, because you have written down what it cost yesterday." Another lady was mentioned who thought as he did, fo that her husband could not get her to keep an account of the expences of the family, as fhe thought it enough that she never exceeded the fum allowed her. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is fit fhe should keep an account, because her husband wifhes it; but I do not fee its ufe."-Mr. Bofwell maintained, that keeping an account had this advantage, that it fatisfied a man that his money had not been loft or ftolen, which he might fometimes be apt to imagine, were there no written ftate of his expences; and befides that, a calculation of economy,

nomy, fo as not to exceed one's income, could not be made without a view of the different articles in figures, that one might fee how to retrench in fome particulars lefs neceflary, than others. This Johnfon did not attempt to anfwer.

At another time fpeaking of oeconomy he remarked, that it was hardly worth while to fave anxioufly twenty pounds a year. If a man could fave to fuch a degree as to enable him to affume a different rank in fociety, then, indeed, it might anfwer fome purpose.

"I told him (fays Mr. Bofwell) that at a gentleman's house where there was thought to be fuch extravagance or bad management that he was living much beyond his income, his lady had objected to the cutting of a pickled mango, and that I had taken an opportunity to ask the price of it, and found it was only two fhillings; fo here was a very poor faving." "Sir (faid Johnfon), that is the blundering œconomy of a narrow understanding. It is ftopping one hole in a fieve."

Talking of a penurious gentleman of his acquaintance, Johnson faid, " He is narrow, not fo much from avarice, as from impotence to spend his money. He cannot find in his heart to pour out a bottle of wine; but he would not much care if it should four."