Note 132 — Chapter I · THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

Gallants, ambitious men, fashionable men late abed and late up, those who live on credit, litigious fellows, spendthrifts, poor devils who marry for love without a penny, loafers, philosophers who live from hand to mouth, soldiers who run through a quarter’s pay in a month, husbands ruined by their wives’ dressmakers’ bills or their servants’ guzzling, men who keep no accounts, who, without being princes or lords, put eighteen yards of velvet into one costume, who spend much and get little, who let their horses starve, their tapestries and furniture moulder, who leave their orchards to be robbed, who would not spend a penny but fling away a shilling, who endow their daughters too largely, who toil without rhyme or reason, who accept financial responsibilities ... weak-kneed men who back out of their lawsuits, who are led by the nose by those about them, who are always singing a gaudeamus and never a requiem, braggarts, giddypates, boasters, “Roger Goodfellows,” gormandisers, debauchees.