Upon examining the cards, it was observed, that notwithstanding an attempt to disguise it, both cards were written in the same hand by some person, who had designed to make fools of them all. Every eye of the corporation turned spontaneously upon the attorney, who, of course, attended all public meetings. His impudence suddenly gave way, he faltered and betrayed himself so fully by his confusion, that the colonel, in a fit of summary justice, threw him out of the window. For this Sir Francis Delaval was charged five hundred pounds.--Whether he paid the money of not, I forget."
This common saying does as much mischief in society, as _rum_ or a _pestilence_. If I hear a man, whether a farmer, a mechanic, or any other person, often repeat that saying, and appear to act from the opinion, that _it will do for the present_, I rely on it he is a sloven, a drone, or something worse. I never knew such a man thrive.
A young man setting out in life, is in haste to be married. He wants a house to live in, but is not fully able to build one. Yet his pride requires a large showy house. At last, between poverty and pride, he determines to build a large house, but not to finish it till he is _more able_. He sets up a large two story house, with four rooms in a story--he covers it and paints it: this is a showy house--his pride exults to see passengers stare at his elegant house: but though _pride_ governs the _outside_, _poverty_ reigns _within_--he can finish but two rooms, half finish one or two more--and lay a loose floor above, to spread his corn upon: this elegant mansion house then is a granary--a corn house: the man and a litter of children below--and rats and mice above: but the man says, _it will do for the present_. True, but the man has but twenty or thirty acres of land, or an indifferent trade--his family grows faster than his income--he is not able to finish his house--the covering soon decays and admits water--the house falls to pieces--the man is forced _poor_ into the wilderness, or he and his children loiter about, dependant on the neighbours for subsistence by day labour.
I know one of these _do-for-the-present-farmers_, who never effectually repairs his fences; but when a breach is made, he fills it with a bush that a sheep may remove: if a rail is broke, and another is not at hand, he takes the next billet of wood, inserts one end into the post, and ties up the other with elm or hickory bark--he says, _this will do for the present_. His cattle learn to be unruly--to remedy the evil, fetters, shackles, clogs, yokes, and what he calls _pokes_, are invented--and his cattle and horses are doomed to hobble about their pasture with a hundred weight of wood or iron machines upon their feet and necks. The man himself, in two years, spends time enough in patching up his fences and making fetters, to make a good effectual fence round his whole farm, which would want very little repair in twenty years.