XXVIII. Of Expence.

RICHES are for spending, and spending for Ho∣nour and good Actions: Therefore Extraordinary Expence must be limited by the worth of the occasion. For Voluntary Undoing may be as well for a man's Coun∣try, as for the Kingdom of Heaven, but Ordinary Expence ought to be limited by a Man's Estate, and governed with such regard, as it be within his compass, and not subject to deceit and abuse of Servants, and ordered to the best shew, that the Bills may be less than the Esti∣mation abroad. Certainly, if a man will keep but of even hand, his Ordinary Expences ought to be but to the half of his Receipts: And if he think to wax Rich, but to the third part. It is no baseness for the greatest to descend and look into their own Estate. Some forbear it, not upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring themselves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it broken; but Wounds cannot be cured without search∣ing. He that cannot look into his own Estate at all, had need both chuse well those whom he employeth, and change them oftner; for new are more timorous, and less subtle. He that can look into his Estate but seldom, it behoveth him to turn all to certainty. A man had need, if he be plentiful in some kind of Ex∣pence, to be as saving again in some other: as if he be plentiful in Diet, to be saving in Apparel: If he be plentiful in the Hall, to be saving in the Stable, and the like. For he that is plentiful in Expences of all kinds, Page  77 will hardly be preserved from decay. In clearing of a man's Estate, he may as well hurt himself, in being too sudden, as in letting it run on too long. For hasty Selling is commonly as disadvantageous as Interest. Besides, he that clears at once will relapse; for fin∣ding himself out of streights, he will revert to his customs: But he that cleareth by degrees, induceth a habit of frugality, and gaineth as well upon his mind as upon his Estate. Certainly, who hath a State to repair, may not despise small things: and commonly it is less dishonourable to abridge petty Charges, than to stoop to petty Gettings. A man ought warily to be∣gin Charges, which once begun will continue; but in matters that return not, he may be more magnifi∣cent.