accountable, and to make others so! It is true, there may be some exceptions; and there are men in most families who prove themselves capable of friendship, elevation, and disinterestedness; but you had much better play at faro, where the odds will be much less against you, than lay your account on meeting such exceptions, or trust to your own judgment and penetration; which if good, may enable you to judge of the talents of men, which they scarce know themselves, but never to reach their hearts, much less what they may do in particular cases, and how far they may be capable of resisting temptation, especially in moments of distress. Besides, many men are very good when well looked after, who left to themselves are capable of deviating gradually into every species of dishonesty. Sir William Petty was very well served, and left it among his advices to his sons, to continue to employ the same people, whom he had trained to the conduct of his affairs, and found honest and diligent in the management of them. They accordingly did so; but these very men, not being looked after, converted everything they could to their private advantage.
"There is still another consideration, which is that as the proportion of foolish to sensible men is beyond all calculation in the general mass of mankind, so nearly the same proportion of these characters exists in the professions. Parents destine children to this or that profession without considering their talents, or from misjudging, being commonly governed by some motive; and men are still less able to decide upon their own fitness, but are commonly either led by fancy and chance, or interest gets them strangely forward in life. But the worst of it is, that they are obliged to act the part of men who know, and the most foolish and most ignorant are commonly the most arbitrary, positive, and adventurous, both from motives of conceit, and to conceal their ignorance. This and want of time and application are the real causes of the perpetual blunders, which are to be found in every transaction of business (and I believe there is not a settle-
