And, as if to make the thing more provoking, his sisters say that he must be provided for in England, for that they cannot think of parting with him.

This, to be sure, matters little; for there is at present just as little chance of getting anything in India as in England.
But what strange folly this is which meets me in every quarter; people wanting posts in the army, the navy, the public offices, and saying that, if they cannot find such posts, they must starve! How do all the rest of mankind live?
If I had not happened to be engaged in politics, and if my father had not been connected, by very extraordinary circumstances, with public men, I should never have dreamed of having places.

Why cannot P-- be apprenticed to some hatter or tailor?
He may do well in such a business; he will do detestably ill as a clerk in my office.

He may come to make good coats; he will never, I am sure, write good despatches.

There is nothing truer than Poor Richard's say: "We are taxed twice as heavily by our pride as by the state." The curse of England is the obstinate determination of the middle classes to make their sons what they call gentlemen.