University of Virginia Library

164. ADVICE, Ten Precepts of.—

A
Decalogue of Canons for Observation in
Practical Life:—

1. Never put off till to-morrow what you
can do to-day.

2. Never trouble another for what you can
do yourself.

3. Never spend your money before you
have it.

4. Never buy what you do not want, because
it is cheap; it will be dear to you.

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst
and cold.

6. We never repent of having eaten too
little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do
willingly.

8. How much pain have cost us the evils
which have never happened.

9. Take things always by their smooth handle.

10. When angry, count ten, before you
speak: if very angry, an hundred.—
To Thomas Jefferson Smith. Washington ed. vii, 401. Ford ed., x, 341.
(M. 1825)