they cannot abstain from spending too freely, and living too highly.

The majority prefer the enjoyment of pleasure to the practice of
self-denial. With the mass of men, the animal is paramount. They often
spend all that they earn. But it is not merely the working people who
are spendthrifts. We hear of men who for years have been earning and
spending hundreds a year, who suddenly die,--leaving their children
penniless. Everybody knows of such cases. At their death, the very
furniture of the house they have lived in belongs to others. It is sold
to pay their funeral expenses and debts which they have incurred during
their thriftless lifetime.

Money represents a multitude of objects without value, or without real
utility; but it also represents something much more precious,--and that
is independence. In this light it is of great moral importance.

As a guarantee of independence, the modest and plebeian quality of
economy is at once ennobled and raised to the rank of one of the most
meritorious of virtues. "Never treat money affairs with levity," said
Bulwer; "Money is Character." Some of man's best qualities depend upon
the right use of money,--such as his generosity, benevolence, justice,
honesty, and forethought. Many of his worst qualities also originate in
the bad use of money,--such as greed, miserliness, injustice,
extravagance, and improvidence.

No class ever accomplished anything that lived from hand to mouth.
People who spend all that they earn, are ever hanging on the brink of
destitution. They must necessarily be weak and impotent--the slaves of
time and circumstance. They keep themselves poor. They lose
self-respect, as well as the respect of others. It is impossible that