'You cannot be ignorant, my children,' cried I, 'that no prudence of ours could have prevented our late misfortune; but prudence may do much in disappointing its effects.

We are now poor, my fondlings, and wisdom bids us conform to our humble situation.

Let us then, without repining, give up those splendours with which numbers are wretched, and seek in humbler circumstances that peace with which all may be happy.
The poor live pleasantly without our help, why then should not we learn to live without theirs.

No, my children, let us from this moment give up all pretensions to gentility; we have still enough left for happiness if we are wise, and let us draw upon content for the deficiencies of fortune.' As my eldest son was bred a scholar, I determined to send him to town, where his abilities might contribute to our support and his own.

The separation of friends and families is, perhaps, one of the most distressful circumstances attendant on penury.