WEALTH.


Ambition often takes the form of a love of money. There are many who have
never attempted Art or Music, Poetry or Science; but most people do
something for a livelihood, and consequently an increase of income is not
only acceptable in itself, but gives a pleasant feeling of success.

Doubt is often expressed whether wealth is any advantage. I do not myself
believe that those who are born, as the saying is, with a silver spoon in
their mouth, are necessarily any the happier for it. No doubt wealth
entails almost more labor than poverty, and certainly more anxiety. Still
it must, I think, be confessed that the possession of an income, whatever
it may be, which increases somewhat as the years roll on, does add to the
comfort of life.

Unquestionably the possession of wealth is by no means unattended by
drawbacks. Money and the love of money often go together. The poor man, as
Emerson says, is the man who wishes to be rich; and the more a man has,
the more he often longs to be richer. Just as drinking often does but
increase thirst; so in many cases the craving for riches does grow with
wealth.

This is, of course, especially the case when money is sought for its own
sake. Moreover, it is often easier to make money than to keep or to enjoy
it. Keeping it is dull and anxious drudgery. The dread of loss may hang
like a dark cloud over life. Apicius, when he squandered most of his
patrimony, but had still 250,000 crowns left, committed suicide, as Seneca
tells us, for fear he should die of hunger.