Litchfield enquirer., 1835-07-23
wEALTH-kNowLEDerI;.. E.

8 Dr. Johnson used to say that wealth was desirable only us a preventive, to defend us from the occurrence of possible physi- cal evils. No man ever felt moro keenly the aiifictions of poverty or enjoyed life tho better after he had received pension, than this sententious moralist. For our part, we entertain 2 proper degree of re- spect. for wealth as every man should for a well dressed stranger with genalemanly air. Men are rich by oMparison--thos0 only are independents, who have enough; those only are happy by means of their wealth, to whom it furnishes | choice of enplcyments, and agreeable relaxaticn.-- Distinction, inc grati6cation of pride, dress, equipage. sensual pleasures, arc fictitious and not real advantages; becapse they tic and pail, give rise to . crowd of unhappy passions. are sotlrccs of ennui, and fre- quehtly end in dissipation and premature debility and old age. This is particularly tho case with tho ricie who have bestowed no care upon the cultivation of their minds: for wealth can only be reckoned as an ad- vantage where t affords an opportunity of mental and moral improvement; which fact at once comedies the argument that ideas considered as acquired property, are of superior value. Because they become m unfailing source ofenjoyment in propor- tion to their number and magnitude.-- When you add by mental culture, -to the mass of mans Information, and give him capacity for its proper management, you
 Adow him with an available capital in pro- portion. Itis like multiplying and quick ening his senses. It is giving delicacy to their habits of appreciation; readiness and precision to their perceptions, and tone and
 vigor to all their functions. Man accumu- laies ideas as he does money, from the
 practice of habits of industry and econo-
 my and when he has procured large a.
 mount, like money at interest it is capable
 of reproduction. The habit of acquiring,
 finally becomes one of pleasure, in tho same way as that of the miser and each
 now idea is received with tho same delight and exultation. He too when no business
 calls him abroad, enlivens his solitary hours
 by counting over his shining treasure, and comparing. weighing and sounding it, piece
 by piece. But, unlike the miser he is con-
 fined to no narrow cell, but carries hisgold
 with him wherever he goes. upon the sea- shore or in the open 6elds--at night be-
 meath the starry skies, or at even tide On the radiant hill top. It glows in the heav-
 ems, 1t bushes in the towering meadows,
 t sparkles in the brook. or it beams in tho
 illumined page of tho quiet moralist and philosopher.
 Then no ofnctuationsin trade--no blights or droughts-no Aoods-no revolutions leopard this capital. He goes on accumu-
 lating, and he becomes richer and richer
 every day. Yet the care of his treasure
 is . source of pleasure instead of anxiety ];
 and the more hc has of 1t, the happier he
 becomes. Whom Simonides, the Crock
 poet. was cast away at sea. he abandopsd
 his money, and committed himself unin-
 cumbered, to the waves. He was asked
 why he did 90. He replied that he carried
 his fortune in bis head. Others, apparently
 more prudent. loaded themselves and were
 lost !; and those who reached the shore.
 were immediately robbed by the natives of the coast. while SimonidaS was carried to the court of the King of the co1ntSys and received every mark of attsntions and was
 loaded with. favors. It is @ with tho man
 of ideas. his capital is imperishsbls. Nessoaik Gazetfs.