and being at work early and late, must consequently be a man of great practice. The thing took accordingly; for the neighbours believing he had business, brought business to him; and the reputation of having a trade, made a trade for him.

Nothing raises the fame of a shop like its being a shop of good trade already; then people go to it because they think there is good choice. Their gilding and painting go but a little way; for it is the having a shop well filled with goods, having good choice to sell, and selling reasonable, that are the things that bring a trade; and a trade thus brought will stand by you, and last.

My advice to a young tradesman is, to keep the safe middle between these extremes; something the times must be humoured in, because fashion and custom must be followed; but let him consider the depth of his stock, and not lay out half his estate upon fitting up his shop, and then leave but the other half to furnish it; it is much better to have a full shop than a fine shop; and a hundred pounds in goods will make a much better show than a hundred pounds' worth of painting and carved work.

Decency in all outward appearances, whether in habit, or in fitting up a shop, is an infallible sign of a right head and a sound judgment; and let this be always kept in the memory of a young shopkeeper.

Painting and adorning a shop seems to intimate, that the tradesman has a large stock to begin with; or else the world suggests he would not make such a show; hence the young shopkeepers are willing to beautify and paint, and gild and carve, because they would be thought to have a great stock to begin with. But let me tell you, the reputation of having a great stock is ill purchased, when half your stock is

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laid out to make the world believe it; that is, in short, reducing yourself to a small srock, to have the world believe you have a great one; in which, by the way, you do no less than barter the real stock for the imaginary; and give away your stock to keep the name of it only.

I take this indeed to be a French humour, or a spice of it, turned English. And indeed we are famous for this, that when we do mimic the French, we generally do it to our hurt, and overdo the French themselves.

The French are eminent for making a fine outside, when perhaps within they want necessaries; and indeed a gay shop, and a mean stock, is something like one of those people, with his laced ruffles without a shirt. I cannot but think a well-furnished shop, with a decent outside, is much better to a tradesman, than a fine shop and few goods. I am sure it will be much more to his satisfaction when he casts up his year's account; for his fine shop will weigh but sorrily in his account of profit and loss; it is all a dead article, it is sunk out of his first money before he makes a shilling profit; and may be some years a recovering, as trade may go with him.

The principle of frugality and good husbandry, is indeed so contrary to the general practice of the times, that we shall find very few people to whom these doctrines are agreeable. But let me tell my young tradesmen, that if they must banish frugality and good husbandry, they must at the same time banish all expectation of growing rich by their trade. It is a maxim in commerce, that money gets money; and they that will not frugally lay up their gain, in order to increase it, must not expect to gain as they might otherwise do. Frugality may be out of fashion among the gentry; but if it comes to be so among tradesmen, we shall soon see, that wealthy

tradesmen will be hard to find. For they who will not save as well as gain, must expect to go out of trade as lean as they began.

Some people tell us indeed, that putting a good face upon things goes as far as the real merit of the things themselves; and that a fine, painted, gilded shop, among the rest, has a great influence upon the people, draws customers, and brings trade. And they run a great length in this way of talk; which is only satirizing on the blindness and folly of mankind; and showing how the world are to be taken in, and deluded, and imposed upon, by outside and tinsel. But I do not grant that the world in general is thus to be deluded; perhaps in some cases it may be so, where the women, and they must be the weakest of the sex, too, are chiefly concerned; or where the fops and fools of the age resort.

But I do not see that even this extends any further than to a few toyshops and pastrycooks; and the customers of both these are not of credit sufficient, I think, to weigh in this case; we may as well argue for the fine habits at a puppet-show, and a rope-dancing, because they draw the mob about them. But I cannot think, after you go but one degree above these, the thing is of any weight, much less does it bring credit to the tradesman.

The credit of a tradesman respects two sorts of people; first, the merchants, or wholesale men, or makers, who sell him his goods; or the customers, who come to his shop to buy.

The first of these are so far from valuing him upon the gay appearance of his shop, that they are often the first that take an offence at it, and suspect his credit upon that account; their good opinion is raised quite another way, namely, by his current pay, diligent attendance, and decent figure; the

gay shop does not help him at all there, but rather the contrary.

As to the latter, though some customers may at first be drawn by the gay appearance and fine gilding and painting of a shop, yet it is the well-sorting a shop with goods, and the selling good pennyworths, that will bring trade, especially after the shop has been open some time; this, and this only, establishes the man, and the credit of the shop.

To conclude. The credit raised by the fine show of things, is also of a different kind from the substantial reputation of a tradesman; it is rather the credit of the shop, than of the man; and, in a word, it is no more or less, than a net spread to catch fools; it is a bait to allure and deceive, and the tradesman generally intends it so. He intends that the customers shall pay for the gilding and painting his shop, and it is the use he really makes of it, viz., that his shop, looking like something eminent, he may sell dearer than his neighbours. Who, and what kind of fools, can be so drawn in, it is easy to describe.

On the contrary, the customers, who are the substantial dependence of a tradesman's shop, are such as are gained and preserved by obliging behaviour, by good pennyworths, by good wares, and by good choice; and a shop that has the reputation of these four, like good wine that wants no bush, needs no painting and gilding, no carved works and ornaments; it requires only a diligent master, and a faithful servant, and it will never want a trade.

CHAP. XXIII.

Of the tradesman's letting his wife be acquainted with his business. Advice to the wives of such not to be above getting an insight into their husbands' trade. The want of doing this subjects them to greater meannesses; sometimes to marry beneath them, &c. Reasons that should prevail on the tradesman in this particular, for the sake of his family. Two sorts of husbands, who are for keeping their wives in ignorance. An instance in point. Particular address to such wives as think themselves too well born, though they stoop to marry a tradesman, to descend to the knowledge of business. Ridiculous pride of such ladies of small fortunes, as think they demean themselves by marrying a tradesman. That the gentlemen of families act more laudably in this case than the ladies.

It must be owned, that though this chapter is written in favour of the women, it will seem to be an officious, thankless benefaction to the wives; for that, as the tradesmen's ladies now manage, they are generally above the favour, and scorn to be seen in the counting-house, much less behind the counter; despise the knowledge of their business, or act as if they were ashamed of being tradesmen's wives, and never imagined to be tradesmen's widows.

If this chosen ignorance of theirs comes, some time or other, to be their loss, and they ever find the disadvantage of it, they may read their fault in their punishment, and wish, too late, they had acted