2844. EXTRAVAGANCE, Deplored.—
All my letters [from America] are filled with
details of our extravagance. From these accounts,
I look back to the time of the war
as a time of happiness and enjoyment, when
amidst the privation of many things not essential
to happiness, we could not run in debt,
because nobody would trust us; when we
practiced by necessity the maxim of buying
nothing but what we had money in our pockets
to pay for; a maxim which, of all others,
lays the broadest foundation for happiness.—
To Mr. Shipwith. Washington ed. ii, 191.
(P.
1787)
