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Franklin's Way to Wealth · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, Way to Wealth by Benjamin Franklin.
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  Speaker 1: Courteous reader. I have heard that nothing gives an author
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  Speaker 1: so great pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted
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  Speaker 1: by others. Judge, then, how much I must have been
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  Speaker 1: gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you.
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  Speaker 1: I stopped my horse lately where a great number of
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  Speaker 1: people were collected at an auction of merchant's goods, the
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  Speaker 1: hour of the sale not being come. They were conversing
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  Speaker 1: on the badness of the times, and one of the
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  Speaker 1: company called to a plain, clean old man with white locks, pray,
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  Speaker 1: Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Will not
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  Speaker 1: those heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we
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  Speaker 1: be ever able to pay them? What would you advise
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  Speaker 1: us to? Father Abraham stood up and replied, if you
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  Speaker 1: would have my advice, I will give it you. In short,
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  Speaker 1: for a word to the wise is enough, as poor
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  Speaker 1: Richard says, They joined in, desiring him to speak his mind,
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  Speaker 1: and gathering round him, he proceeded as follows. Friends, says he,
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  Speaker 1: the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid
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  Speaker 1: on by the government. Were the only ones we had
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  Speaker 1: to pay, we might more easily discharge them. But we
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  Speaker 1: have many others, and much more grievous to some of us.
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  Speaker 1: We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three
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  Speaker 1: times as much by our pride, and four times as
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  Speaker 1: much by our folly. And from these taxes the commissioners
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  Speaker 1: cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement. However,
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  Speaker 1: let us hearken to good advice, and something may be
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  Speaker 1: done for us. God helps them that help themselves. As
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  Speaker 1: poor Richard says, I, it would be thought a hard
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  Speaker 1: government that should tax its people one tenth part of
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  Speaker 1: their time to be employed in its service. But idleness
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  Speaker 1: taxes many of us much more. Sloth, by bringing on diseases,
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  Speaker 1: absolutely shortens life. Published by W. Darton, Junre Octur one,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen o five. Sloth like rust consumes faster than labor wears,
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  Speaker 1: while the used key is always bright, as poor Richard
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  Speaker 1: says dot. But dost thou love life, then do not
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  Speaker 1: squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
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  Speaker 1: As poor Richard says DOT, how much more than is
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  Speaker 1: necessary do we spend in sleep? Forgetting that the sleeping
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  Speaker 1: fox catches no poultry, and that there will be sleeping
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  Speaker 1: enough in the grave, as poor Richard says, Man and Angel.
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  Speaker 1: If time be of all things the most precious, wasting
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  Speaker 1: time must be, as poor Richard says, the greatest prodigality, since,
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  Speaker 1: as he elsewhere tells us, lost time is never found again.
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  Speaker 1: And what we call time enough always proves little enough.
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  Speaker 1: Let us then up and be doing and doing to
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  Speaker 1: the purpose. So by diligence shall we do more with
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  Speaker 1: less perplexity. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy.
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  Speaker 1: And he that riseth late must trot all day, and
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  Speaker 1: shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels
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  Speaker 1: so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. Drive thy business,
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  Speaker 1: Let not that drive thee And early to bed and
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  Speaker 1: early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
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  Speaker 1: As poor Richard says, the sun shone yesterday, and I
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  Speaker 1: would not work to day it rains, and I cannot publish.
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  Speaker 1: By W. Darton, Genre Octur one, eighteen o five. So
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  Speaker 1: what signifies wishing and hoping for better times? We may
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  Speaker 1: make these times better if we bestir ourselves. Industry need
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  Speaker 1: not wish and he that lives upon hope will die
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  Speaker 1: fasting there are no gains without pains. Then help hands,
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  Speaker 1: for I have no lands, or if I have, they
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  Speaker 1: are smartly taxed. He that hath a trade hath an estate,
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  Speaker 1: and he that hath a calling hath an office of
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  Speaker 1: profit and honor, as poor Richard says. But then the
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  Speaker 1: trade must be worked at and the calling well followed,
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  Speaker 1: or neither the estate nor the office will enable us
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  Speaker 1: to pay our taxes. Dot, if we are industrious, we
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  Speaker 1: shall never starve. For at the working man's house, hunger
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  Speaker 1: looks in but dares not enter, nor will the bailiff
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  Speaker 1: or the constable enter. For industry pays debts, while despair
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  Speaker 1: increase at them. What though you have found no treasure,
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  Speaker 1: nor has any rich relation left you a legacy. Diligence
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  Speaker 1: is the mother of good luck, and God gives all
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  Speaker 1: things to industry. Then plow deep while sluggard sleep, and
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  Speaker 1: you shall have corn to sell and to keep work
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  Speaker 1: while it is called to day, For you know not
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  Speaker 1: how much you may be hindered tomorrow. One to day
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  Speaker 1: is worth two tomorrows, as poor Richard says. And farther,
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  Speaker 1: never leave that till tomorrow, which you can do to day.
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  Speaker 1: If you were a servant, would you not be ashamed
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  Speaker 1: that a good master should catch you idle? Are you,
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  Speaker 1: then your own master, be ashamed to catch yourself idle
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  Speaker 1: when there is so much to be done for yourself,
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  Speaker 1: your family, your country, and your king. Handle your tools
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  Speaker 1: without mittens. Remember that the cat and gloves catches no mice.
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  Speaker 1: As poor Richard says, it is true, there is much
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  Speaker 1: to be done, and perhaps you are weak handed. But
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  Speaker 1: stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects.
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  Speaker 1: For constant dropping wears away stones, and by diligence and
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  Speaker 1: patience the mouse aid into the cable, and little strokes
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  Speaker 1: fell great oaks. Cat methinks, I hear some of you say,
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  Speaker 1: must a man afford himself no leisure? I will tell thee,
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  Speaker 1: my friend, what poor Richard says. Employ thy time. Well,
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  Speaker 1: if thou meanest to gain leisure, and since thou art
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  Speaker 1: not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.
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  Speaker 1: Leisure is time for doing something useful. This leisure the
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  Speaker 1: diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never. For
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  Speaker 1: if the life of leisure and the life of laziness
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  Speaker 1: are two things, many without labor would live by their
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  Speaker 1: wits only, but they break for want of stock, whereas
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  Speaker 1: industry gives comfort and plenty and respect, fly pleasures, and
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  Speaker 1: they will follow you. The diligent spinner has a large shift,
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  Speaker 1: And now I have a sheep and a cow. Every
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  Speaker 1: body bids me good morrow. Two. But with our industry
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  Speaker 1: we must likewise be steady, settled, and careful, and oversee
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  Speaker 1: our own affairs with our own eyes, and not trust
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  Speaker 1: too much to others. For as poor Richard says, I
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  Speaker 1: never saw an oft removed tree, nor yet an oft
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  Speaker 1: removed family that throve so well as those that settled be.
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  Speaker 1: And again three removes are as bad as a fire.
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  Speaker 1: And again keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.
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  Speaker 1: And again, if you would have your business done, go,
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  Speaker 1: if not send, And again he that by the plow
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  Speaker 1: would thrive himself must either hold or drive. And again
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  Speaker 1: the eye of the master will do more work than
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  Speaker 1: both his hands. And again want of care does us
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  Speaker 1: more damage than want of knowledge. And again, not to
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  Speaker 1: oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open man
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  Speaker 1: on back of cart. People working trusting too much to
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  Speaker 1: others care is the ruin of many. For in the
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  Speaker 1: affairs of this world. Men are saved not by faith
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  Speaker 1: but by the want of it. But a man's own
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  Speaker 1: care is profitable. For if you would have a faithful servant,
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  Speaker 1: and one that you like, serve yourself. A little neglect
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  Speaker 1: may breed great mischief. For want of a nail, the
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  Speaker 1: shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse
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  Speaker 1: was lost, And for want of a horse the rider
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  Speaker 1: was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all
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  Speaker 1: for want of a little care about a horse, shoe
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  Speaker 1: nail free. So much for industry, my friends, an attention
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  Speaker 1: to one's own business. But to these we must add frugality.
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  Speaker 1: If we would make our industry more certainly successful. A
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  Speaker 1: man may, if he knows not how to save as
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  Speaker 1: he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone,
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  Speaker 1: and die not worth a groat. At last, a fat
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  Speaker 1: kitchen makes a lean will, And many estates are spent
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  Speaker 1: in the getting. Since women for tea for souk, spinning
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  Speaker 1: and knitting, and men for punch for souek, heuing in splitting.
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  Speaker 1: If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well
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  Speaker 1: as of getting. The Indies have not made Spain rich
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  Speaker 1: because her outgoes are greater than her incomes. Family men
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  Speaker 1: sitting around a table away, then with your expensive follies,
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  Speaker 1: and you will not then have so much cause to
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  Speaker 1: complain of hard times. Heavy taxes and chargeable families for women,
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  Speaker 1: and wine, game and deceit make the wealth small and
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  Speaker 1: the want great and farther. What maintains one vice would
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  Speaker 1: bring up two children. You may think perhaps that a
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  Speaker 1: little tea or a little punch now and then, diet,
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  Speaker 1: a little more costly clothes, a little finer, and a
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  Speaker 1: little entertainment now and then can be no great matter.
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  Speaker 1: But remember many a little makes a mickle. Beware of
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  Speaker 1: little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship,
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  Speaker 1: as poor Richard says. And again who dainties love shall
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  Speaker 1: beggars prove. And moreover, fools make feasts and wise men
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  Speaker 1: eat them. Here you are all got together to this
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  Speaker 1: sale of fineries and knick knacks. You call them goods,
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  Speaker 1: but if you do not take care, they will prove
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  Speaker 1: evils to some of you. You expect they will be
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  Speaker 1: sold cheap, and perhaps they may for less than they cost,
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  Speaker 1: But if you have no occasion for them, they must
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  Speaker 1: be dear to you remember what poor Richard says, by
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  Speaker 1: what thou hast no need of? And ere long thou
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  Speaker 1: shalt sell thy necessaries, and again at a great pennyworth.
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  Speaker 1: Pause a while. He means that perhaps the cheapness is
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  Speaker 1: apparent only and not real, or the bargain by straightening
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  Speaker 1: thee in thy business may do thee more harm than good.
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  Speaker 1: For in another place, he says, many have been ruined
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  Speaker 1: by buying good pennyworths. Again, it is foolish to lay
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  Speaker 1: out money in a purchase of repentance, and yet this
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  Speaker 1: folly is practiced every day at auctions. For want of
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  Speaker 1: minding the almanac, many a one, for the sake of
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  Speaker 1: finery on the back, have gone with a hungry belly
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  Speaker 1: and half starved their families. Silks and satins, scarlet and
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  Speaker 1: velvets put out the kitchen fire. As poor Richard says,
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  Speaker 1: these are not the necessaries of life. They can scarcely
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  Speaker 1: be called the conveniences. And yet only because they look pretty,
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  Speaker 1: how many want to have them buy these and other extravagancies.
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  Speaker 1: The genteel are reduced to poverty and forced to borrow
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  Speaker 1: of those whom they formerly despised, but who through industry
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  Speaker 1: and frugality have maintained their standing, in which case it
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  Speaker 1: appears plainly that a plowman on his legs is higher
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  Speaker 1: than a gentleman on his knees, as poor Richard says.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps they have had a small estate left them which
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  Speaker 1: they knew not the getting of They think it is
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  Speaker 1: day and will never be night, that a little to
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  Speaker 1: be spent out of so much is not worth minding.
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  Speaker 1: But always taking out of the meal tub and never
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  Speaker 1: putting in soon comes to the bottom, as poor Richard says.
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  Speaker 1: And then when the well is dry, they know the
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  Speaker 1: worth of water. But this they might have known before
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  Speaker 1: if they had taken his advice, if you would know
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  Speaker 1: the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
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  Speaker 1: For he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing, as
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  Speaker 1: poor Richard says. And indeed so does he that lends
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  Speaker 1: to such people when he goes to get it in Again,
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  Speaker 1: Poor Dick Farther advises and says, fond pride of dress
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  Speaker 1: is sure a very curse. Ere fancy you consult consult
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  Speaker 1: your purse man and lady walking in street, And again
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  Speaker 1: pride is as loud a beggar, as want and a
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  Speaker 1: great deal more saucy. When you have bought one fine thing,
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  Speaker 1: you must by ten more, that your appearance may be
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  Speaker 1: all of a piece. But poor Dick says, it is
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  Speaker 1: easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy by
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  Speaker 1: all that follow it. And it is as truly folly
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  Speaker 1: for the poor to ape the rich as for the
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  Speaker 1: frog to swell in order to equal the ox. Vessels.
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  Speaker 1: Large may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore.
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  Speaker 1: It is, however, a folly soon punished, for, as poor
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  Speaker 1: Richard says, pride that dines on vanity SUPs on contempt.
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  Speaker 1: Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, in supped with infamy.
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  Speaker 1: And after all, of what use is this pride of appearance,
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  Speaker 1: for which so much is risked, so much is suffered.
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  Speaker 1: It cannot promote health, nor ease pain. It makes no
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  Speaker 1: increase of merit in the person, It creates envy, it
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  Speaker 1: hastens misfortune. But what madness it must be to run
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  Speaker 1: in debt for these superfluities. We are offered by the
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  Speaker 1: terms of this sale six months credit, and that perhaps
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  Speaker 1: has induced some of us to attend it, because we
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  Speaker 1: cannot spare the ready money and hope now to be
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  Speaker 1: fine without it. But ah, think what you do. When
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  Speaker 1: you run in debt, you give to another power over
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  Speaker 1: your liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you
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  Speaker 1: will be ashamed to see your creditor. You will be
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  Speaker 1: in fear when you speak to him. You will make poor, pitiful,
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  Speaker 1: sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity
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  Speaker 1: and sink into base downright, lying, for the second vice
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  Speaker 1: is lying. The first is running in debt, As poor
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  Speaker 1: Richard says, and again to the same purpose, lying rides
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  Speaker 1: upon debt's back. Whereas a free born Englishman ought not
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  Speaker 1: to be ashamed nor afraid to see or speak to
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  Speaker 1: any man living, But poverty often deprives a man of
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  Speaker 1: all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty
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  Speaker 1: bag to stand upright. What would you think of that
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  Speaker 1: prince or of that government who should issue an edict
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  Speaker 1: forbidding you to dress like a gentleman or gentlewoman on
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  Speaker 1: pain of imprisonment or servitude. Would you not say that
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  Speaker 1: you were free, have a right to dress as you please,
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  Speaker 1: and that such an edict would be a breach of
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  Speaker 1: your privileges. And such a government tyrannical and yet you
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  Speaker 1: are about to put yourself under that tyranny. When you
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  Speaker 1: run in debt for such dress, your creditor has authority
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  Speaker 1: at his pleasure to deprive you of your liberty by
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  Speaker 1: confining you in jail for life, or by selling you
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  Speaker 1: for a servant, if you should not be able to
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  Speaker 1: pay him. When you have got your bargain, you may
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  Speaker 1: perhaps think little of payment. But as Poor Richard says,
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  Speaker 1: creditors have better memories than debtors. Creditors are a superstitious sect,
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  Speaker 1: great observers of set days and times. The day comes
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  Speaker 1: round before you are aware, and the demand is made
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  Speaker 1: before you are prepared to satisfy it. Or if you
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  Speaker 1: bear your debt in mind, the term which at first
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  Speaker 1: seems so long, will, as it lessens, appear extremely short.
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  Speaker 1: Time will seem to have added wings to his heels
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  Speaker 1: as well as his shoulders. Those have a short lent
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  Speaker 1: who owe money to be paid at Easter. At present,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps you may I think yourselves in thriving circumstances, and
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  Speaker 1: that you can bear a little extravagance without injury, but
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  Speaker 1: for age and want save. While you may no morning
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  Speaker 1: sun lasts a whole day, gain may be temporary and uncertain.
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  Speaker 1: But ever, while you live, expense is constant and certain.
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  Speaker 1: And it is easier to build two chimneys than to
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  Speaker 1: keep one in fuel, as poor Richard says. So, rather
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  Speaker 1: go to bed supper less than rise in debt. Get
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  Speaker 1: what you can, and what you get hold tis the
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  Speaker 1: stone that will turn all your lead into gold. And
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  Speaker 1: when you have got the philosopher's stone, sure you will
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  Speaker 1: no longer complain of bad times or the difficulty of
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  Speaker 1: paying taxes. Four. This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: But after all, do not depend too much upon your
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  Speaker 1: own industry and frugality and prudence, though excellent things, for
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  Speaker 1: they may all be blasted without the blessing of heaven.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore ask that blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable
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  Speaker 1: to those that at present seemed to want it, but
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  Speaker 1: comfort and help them. Remember jobs suffered and was afterwards
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  Speaker 1: prosperous men at a table. And now, to conclude, experience
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  Speaker 1: keeps a dear school. But fools will learn in no other,
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  Speaker 1: as poor Richard says, and scarce in that, for it
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  Speaker 1: is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. However,
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  Speaker 1: remember this, they that will not be counseled cannot be helped.
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  Speaker 1: And farther that if you will not hear reason, she
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  Speaker 1: will surely wrap your knuckles. As poor Richard says, Thus
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  Speaker 1: the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard it,
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  Speaker 1: and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary, just
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  Speaker 1: as if it had been a common sermon. For the
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  Speaker 1: auction opened, and they began to buy extravagantly. Dot I
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  Speaker 1: found the good man had thoroughly studied my almanacs and
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  Speaker 1: digested all I had dropped on those topics during the
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  Speaker 1: course of twenty five years. The frequent mention he made
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  Speaker 1: of me must have tired any one else, but my
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  Speaker 1: veanity was wonderfully delighted with it. Though I was conscious
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  Speaker 1: that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own,
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  Speaker 1: which he ascribed to me, but rather the gleanings that
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  Speaker 1: I had made of the sense of all ages and nations. However,
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  Speaker 1: I resolved to be the better for the echo of it.
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  Speaker 1: And though I had at first determined to buy stuff
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  Speaker 1: for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear
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  Speaker 1: my old one a little longer. Reader, if thou wilt
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  Speaker 1: do the same, thy profit will be as great as mine.
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  Speaker 1: Dot I am as ever thine to serve THEE. Richard
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  Speaker 1: Saunders Temple and Trees, W and T. Darton Printers, Hoborn Hill, London.
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  Speaker 1: The end, Thanks for listening.