Wealth is certainly no sinecure. Moreover, the value of money depends
partly on knowing what to do with it, partly on the manner in which it is
acquired.

"Acquire money, thy friends say, that we also may have some. If I can
acquire money and also keep myself modest, and faithful, and magnanimous,
point out the way, and I will acquire it. But if you ask me to love the
things which are good and my own, in order that you may gain things that
are not good, see how unfair and unwise you are. For which would you
rather have? Money, or a faithful and modest friend....

"What hinders a man, who has clearly comprehended these things, from
living with a light heart, and bearing easily the reins, quietly expecting
everything which can happen, and enduring that which has already happened?
Would you have me to bear poverty? Come, and you will know what poverty is
when it has found one who can act well the part of a poor man." [1]

We must bear in mind Solon's answer to Croesus, "Sir, if any other come
that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this gold."

Midas is another case in point. He prayed that everything he touched might
be turned into gold, and this prayer was granted. His wine turned to gold,
his bread turned to gold, his clothes, his very bed.

"Attonitus novitate mali, divesque miserque,
Effugere optat opes, et quae modo voverat, odit."

He is by no means the only man who has suffered from too much gold.

The real truth I take to be that wealth is not necessarily an advantage,