conduct. It involves self-denial--the denial of present enjoyment for
future, good--the subordination of animal appetite to reason,
forethought, and prudence. It works for to-day, but also provides for
to-morrow. It invests the capital it has saved, and makes provision for
the future.

"Man's right of seeing the future," says Mr. Edward Denison, "which is
conferred on him by reason, has attached to it the duty of providing for
that future; and our language bears witness to this truth by using, as
expressive of active precaution against future want, a word which in its
radical meaning implies only a passive foreknowledge of the same.
Whenever we speak of the _virtue of providence_, we assume that
forewarned is fore-armed, To know the future is no virtue, but it is the
greatest of virtues to prepare for it."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Letters of the late Edward Denison._ p. 240.]

But a large proportion of men do not provide for the future. They do not
remember the past. They think only of the present. They preserve
nothing. They spend all that they earn. They do not provide for
themselves: they do not provide for their families. They may make high
wages, but eat and drink the whole of what they earn. Such people are
constantly poor, and hanging on the verge of destitution.

It is the same with nations. The nations which consume all that they
produce, without leaving a store for future production, have no capital.
Like thriftless individuals, they live from hand to mouth, and are
always poor and miserable. Nations that have no capital, have no
commerce. They have no accumulations to dispose of; hence they have no
ships, no sailors, no docks, no harbours, no canals, and no railways.