He had studied the theory of
agriculture with a degree of eagerness and delight; and he could
not conceive there was any mystery in the practice, but what he
should be able to disclose by dint of care and application. With
respect to houshold expence, he entered into a minute detail and
investigation, by which he perceived the assertions of his
friends were altogether erroneous -- He found he should save sixty
pounds a year in the single article of house-rent, and as much
more in pocket-money and contingencies; that even butcher's-meat
was twenty per cent cheaper in the country than in London; but
that poultry, and almost every other circumstance of house-keeping,
might be had for less than one-half of
what they cost in town; besides, a considerable saving on the
side of dress, in being delivered from the oppressive imposition
of ridiculous modes, invented by ignorance, and adopted by folly.
As to the danger of vying with the rich in pomp and equipage, it
never gave him the least disturbance. He was now turned of forty,
and, having lived half that time in the busy scenes of life, was
well skilled in the science of mankind. There cannot be in nature
a more contemptible figure than that of a man, who, with five
hundred a year, presumes to rival in expence a neighbour who
possesses five times that income -- His ostentation, far from
concealing, serves only to discover his indigence, and render his
vanity the more shocking; for it attracts the eyes of censure,
and excites the spirit of inquiry.
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