The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.)

rother to him that is a great waster:' and in another place, 'The sluggard shall be clothed in rags,' (Prov. xxiii. 1), or to that purpose. On the contrary, the same wi

in this world goes forward as it should do: let the man have the most perfect knowledge of his trade, and the best situation for his shop, yet without application nothing will go on. What is th

e are more outcries of 'Stop thief!' at their door, and more constables fetched to that shop, than to all the shops in the row. There was a brave trade at that shop in Mr-'s time: he was a true shopkeeper; like the quack doctor, you never missed him from seven in the morning till twelve, and from two till nine at night, and he throve accordingly-he left a good estate behind him. But I don't know what these people are; they say there are two partners of them, but there had as good be none, for they are never at home, nor in their shop: one wears a long wig and a sword, I hear, and you see him often in the Mall and at court, but very seldom in his shop, or wa

cribed; nor are the inferences unjust, any more than the description is unlike, for such ce

nnot take the price offered, yet the customers are not disobliged, and if they do not deal now, they may another time: if they do deal, the master generally ge

equires it. It is an old Anglicism, 'Such a man drives a trade;' the allusion is to a carter, that with his voice, his hands, his whip, and his constant attendance, keeps the team always going, helps himself, lifts at the wheel in every slough, doubles

such a man drives his trade; for, in shor

and keep pumping, they sit well, and dry and safe, and if they work very hard one hour or two, they may rest, perhaps, a quarter of an hour afterwards; but if they oversleep themselves, or grow lazy, the water comes in upon them

wnright murdering himself; that is to say, in his trading capacity, he murders his cr

of the great businesses of life-I do not say the chief, but one of the great businesses of life it certainly is-trade must, I say, be worked at, not played wi

with it; the result of which is, that the shop replies to the tradesman thus: 'Keep me, and I will keep thee.' It is the same with driving the trade; if the shopkeeper will not keep, that is, diligently attend t

t or game, in which he is to meet with diversions only, and entertainment, and not to be in the least troubled or disturbed: trade is a daily employment, and must be followed as such, with the full attent

hall state the manner in a few words, that the tradesman may neither give too much, nor take away too much, to or from any respe

time; as his time is measured out to him, so the measu

more to be unemployed, than it is to be ill employed. Three things are chiefly before us in the appointment of our time: 1. Necessari

sleep; and in case of disease, a recess from business; all which

to their pro

with mod

t I study brevity, and desire rather to hint than dwell upon th

d, and that of the sublimest nature; and they ought not to be thrust at

business, or employment, or calling

r, or se

mplo

Tra

labouring man, who works for himself indeed in one respect, bu

properly called trade, such as lawyers, physicians, surg

-traders, such as are already descri

ecessity to be obeyed in another, so duty is to be observed in the third; and yet all these with such a due regard to one another, as that one duty may not jostle

o heaven, on pretence that I say they must not neglect their shops. But let them do me justice, and they will do themselves no injury; nor do I fear that my arguing on this point should give them any just cause to go wrong; if they wi

ery Christian to worship God, to pay his homage morning and evening to his Maker, and at all other proper seasons to behave as becomes a sincere worshipper of God; nor must any avocation, eith

e another, that we are really without excuse, if we let any one be pleaded for the neglect of the other. Food, sleep, rest, and the necessities of nature, are either r

ld sleep, turns nature bottom upwards, inverts the appointment of providence,

out of its place, to put it in our way, and to urge us to a breach of what we ought to do: besides this subtle tempter-for, as above, I won't charge it all upon the devil-we have a great hand in it ourselve

bell ring to call his neighbours to the same duty-then the secret hint comes across his happy intention, that he must go to such or such a place, that he may be back time enough for such other business as has

hen the same deceiver presses him earnestly to go to his closet, or to the church to prayers, during which time his customer goes to another place, the neighbours miss him in his shop, his business is lost, his reputation suffers; and by this turned into

or ten o'clock to call all his family together to prayers; and yet he was no presbyterian, I assure you; I say,

at, he first suffered sleep to interfere with religion, and lying a-bed to postpone and jostle out his prayers-and then, to make God Almighty amends upon himself, wounds his f

r just gone up into the pulpit, sits down, joins in the prayers, hears the sermon, and goes very gravely home again; in short, his earnestness in the worship, and attention to what he had heard, quite put the errand he was sent about out of his head; and the poor woman in travail, after having waited long for the return of her husband with the midwife, was obliged (having run an extreme hazard by

he poor man to this neglect? Certainly, had he gone for the midwife, i

ed so assiduously to hunt out these occasions, that whether it was in a church or meeting-house, or both, he was always abroad to hear a sermon, at least once every day, and sometimes more; and

er, ten times for once, that tradesmen neglect their shop and business to follow the track of their vices and extravagence-some by

siness and trades are not to be neglected, no, not for the extraordinary excursions of reli

are now filled with citizens and young tradesmen, instead of gentlemen and families of distinction; the shopkeepers wear a diff

relief of insolvent debtors almost every session of parliament, and yet the jails filled with insolv

sands ruin themselves by that; it is an age of luxurious and expensive living, and thousands more undo themselves by that; but, among all our vices, nothing ruins a tradesman so effectually as the neglect of his business: it is true, all those things prompt men to neglect their business, but the more seasonable is the advice; either enter upon no trade, undertake no business, or, having undertaken it, pursue it diligently: drive your trade, that the world may not drive you out of trade, an

a bondage, not a business: the shop is a bridewell, and the warehouse a house of correction to the tradesman, if he does not delight in his trade. While he is bound, as we say, to keep his shop, he is like the galley-slave chained down to

not but be diligent in it, which, according to Solomon, makes him certainly rich, and in t