Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford | Page 3

have thanked me for my Grammars,
some for my Cottage Economy, others for the Woodlands and the
Gardener; and, in short, for every one of my works have I received
letters of thanks from numerous persons, of whom I had never heard
before. In many cases I have been told, that, if the parties had had my
books to read some years before, the gain to them, whether in time or in
other things, would have been very great. Many, and a great many,
have told me, that, though long at school, and though their parents had
paid for their being taught English Grammar, or French, they had, in a
short time, learned more from my books, on those subjects, than they
had learned, in years, from their teachers. How many gentlemen have
thanked me, in the strongest terms, for my Woodlands and Gardener,
observing (just as Lord Bacon had observed in his time) that they had
before seen no books, on these subjects, that they could understand!
But, I know not of anything that ever gave me more satisfaction than I
derived from the visit of a gentleman of fortune, whom I had never
heard of before, and who, about four years ago, came to thank me in
person for a complete reformation, which had been worked in his son
by the reading of my two SERMONS on drinking and on gaming.
8. I have, therefore, done, already, a great deal in this way: but, there is
still wanting, in a compact form, a body of ADVICE such as that which
I now propose to give: and in the giving of which I shall divide my
matter as follows. 1. Advice addressed to a YOUTH; 2. Advice
addressed to a BACHELOR; 3. Advice addressed to a LOVER; 4. To a
HUSBAND; 5. To a FATHER; 6. To a CITIZEN or SUBJECT.
9. Some persons will smile, and others laugh outright, at the idea of
'Cobbett's giving advice for conducting the affairs of love.' Yes, but I
was once young, and surely I may say with the poet, I forget which of
them,
'Though old I am, for ladies' love unfit, The power of beauty I

remember yet.'
I forget, indeed, the names of the ladies as completely, pretty nigh, as I
do that of the poets; but I remember their influence, and of this
influence on the conduct and in the affairs and on the condition of men,
I have, and must have, been a witness all my life long. And, when we
consider in how great a degree the happiness of all the remainder of a
man's life depends, and always must depend, on his taste and judgment
in the character of a lover, this may well be considered as the most
important period of the whole term of his existence.
10. In my address to the HUSBAND, I shall, of course, introduce
advice relative to the important duties of masters and _servants_; duties
of great importance, whether considered as affecting families or as
affecting the community. In my address to the CITIZEN or SUBJECT,
I shall consider all the reciprocal duties of the governors and the
governed, and also the duties which man owes to his neighbour. It
would be tedious to attempt to lay down rules for conduct exclusively
applicable to every distinct calling, profession, and condition of life;
but, under the above-described heads, will be conveyed every species
of advice of which I deem the utility to be unquestionable.
11. I have thus fully described the nature of my little work, and, before
I enter on the first Letter, I venture to express a hope, that its good
effects will be felt long after its author shall have ceased to exist.

LETTER I
TO A YOUTH
12. You are now arrived at that age which the law thinks sufficient to
make an oath, taken by you, valid in a court of law. Let us suppose
from fourteen to nearly twenty; and, reserving, for a future occasion,
my remarks on your duty towards parents, let me here offer you my
advice as to the means likely to contribute largely towards making you
a happy man, useful to all about you, and an honour to those from
whom you sprang.
13. Start, I beseech you, with a conviction firmly fixed on your mind,
that you have no right to live in this world; that, being of hale body and
sound mind, you have no right to any earthly existence, without doing
work of some sort or other, unless you have ample fortune whereon to
live clear of debt; and, that even in that case, you have no right to breed

children, to be kept by others, or to be exposed to the chance of being
so kept. Start