Letters from a Father to His Son

who are entrusted with the care of them—that is, their parents or
teachers, allow them to obtain every gratification—then young
boys and girls so treated are almost sure to be ruined!
You will find, also, that there is often more real happiness in abstaining
from the immediate object of our wishes, than in securing it. Happiness
does not consist in a perpetual round of pleasures and
enjoyments. When you have had a long and perhaps fatiguing
walk, rest is pleasant; and after a long fast, you are hungry. But
were you always eating or always resting, then you would swallow
your food without an appetite, and would feel no pleasure in
repose.
Thus it is that human nature is constituted. The industrious man
enjoys his leisure—the man who is always at leisure enjoys
nothing.
One of the first things that boys are apt to do wrong in is, the
indulgence of their appetites by perpetually buying things to eat.
The parents of some boys send cakes and sweets with them or
after them to school. In the north of England, where I was
educated, this was of rare occurrence, and the few boys who were
so indulged obtained nick-names, and became objects of derision
to their playfellows. One, I recollect, was called Dolly, from the
name of the servant who brought him the good things.
Do not understand me to say that you are never to eat sweets;
such things, if in a proper state, are now and then very well in
moderation. What I am cautioning you against is the spending
every penny you get in that way. I recollect we had a boy at our
school who was never done eating pies, cakes, and fruit. When he
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