Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1839-05-23

| nudge being asked what contributed most to
success at the bar, replied, Some succeed by
great talent, some by high connexions, some
BY miracle, but the majority by commencing
without shilling" The same remark holds
true of almost any calling or profession. A
traveller who starts on q journey with q
heavy load, or too much baggage, is much
less likely to get on with comfort to himself
and success in his enterprise, than he who
forbears to cucumber himself.
Poverty is a sharpener OF the wits and an
incentive to exertion. No man who mas the
requisites for success-and every man is fit
for something's apt to let his talents lie in
napkin, if the exercise OF them Is necessary
to his pecuniary support and comfort. 1t,
however, he commences with property sutti-
Gent TO defer the business Of life-to slight
the duties which he should perform in the
community; the chance is, that when the
hour of necessity arrives, he will find himself
untitled by slothful habits and neglected OPP
portunties. The occurrence of these conSc-
Quences may be recalled to any readers
mind by recollection of the history Of the
rich men and the poor men among his &C
quaintance. Many poor lad is enabled, by
the changes and chances of fortune, to be-
friend in his need the man who was his
rich school-mate.
There are many rich people in the world
| who have themselves no idea what they are
good for-and whose friends have never tho
roughly found them out-we mean the rich
by inheritance. Maria Edgeworth, whose
works were very popular fourteen or fifteen
years ago, and ought to be more widely read
| now, has an excellent story among her other
excellent works, entitled 81 Ennui." The
reader of fiction, if he is not already familiar
with it, may hunt for it. With that and the
other novelties of the same writer, time may
be both pleasantly and proitably employed.
Meanwhile, as the incidents are opposite to
our arguments, we will briefly relate them
from the recollections of a perusal fourteen
years ago.
The subject of the sketch, the victim of
ennui, is rich Irish resident landholder,
whose time hangs awfully heavy on his
hands,. Having no inducement or incentive
to occupation, he is q mere blank in crea-
ton, and his restless existence is positive
burthen to himself He is accounted by his
acquaintance a negatively good, harmless.
useless, individual, who might shuttle off his
mortal coil, and the world suffer no loss by
it. So he vegetated for number of years,
in possession of his property, until he acci-
dentally discovered that the estate Of which
| he was in possession-not enjoy nent-was
! not his own. The foster mother of the real
heir had changed infants with the owner Of
the estate, and given him her child instead
of his own. Conscience would not permit
| him to remain in possession of property ac-
quired by his mothers fraud, and he lost no
| time in putting the real owner in possession,
and launching forth himself, at middle age.
into the world, pennyless. The dross of
wealth removed, the man shone out. Indus
| try, talent and application, gave him wealth
| and character, and by the time the real heir
had exhausted his suddenly acquired proper
| ty, and killed himself in revealing in the en-
joyment of uncultivated taste, and low dissi-
I patton, our victim of ennui was ready to re-
purchase and enjoy the estate which he had
so magnanimously surrendered.
To this second possession he brought an
acquaintance with himself, and with his own
powers. He had acquired habits of employ
ment, and knew how to devote his time with
usefulness to his fellows, and occupation and
happiness to himself. Ennui was word no
longer in his vocabulary. He had learned
"the uses of the world;" and to him they
no longer seemed weary, stale, flat. and un-
| profitable" II is those only who do not un-
| derstand the world, and mix in it with q
clear conscience, that it does seem so little
worth caring about. The guilty may be sick
of it, for its events remind them continually
of their own bad passages. The weary Of
pleasure-the stated with enjoyment, may
cry out that Z" all is vanity" and the ascetic
may affect to regard the world which God
made and pronounced good, not good enough
for them. But the true christian and philan-
thropist-the observer of men, of manners,
and of nature, will always deem existence
boon worth thanking heaven for. But we
are wandering from the subject.
The experience of the suddenly enriched
peasant, in the tale to which we have refer
red, shows the danger of wealth coming to
the possessor by surprise. Riches are not
wealth unless they are earned dollar by dol
lar. The eastern sage was right, who prefer
red that riches should come drop by drop,
rather than that the golden stream should be
quick and violent. There are men about
town-we meet them daily in the streets
who have been rich, and now are poor, in
purse, in mind, in character. An unexpect-
eddy fortunate turn to speculation, be.
quest of property from the dead, or per-
chance lucky venture in lottery, has made
them wealthy beyond their former concep.
tons, and almost beyond their Desires
Money thus acquired by accident, is seldom,
except by accident, retained; and as the
purse runs out, the man runs out with it. Of
course, in this connection, we do not intend
to allude to those whom the chances of trade
have rendered unfortunate. Honestly losing
their means, they do not lose themselves with
their property-but may be. like the hero of
Miss Edgeworth's story, better men for being
poorer.
The desire to obtain property, is honest
and laudable. Honestly and laudably fol-
lowed, it brings an improvement of the man
with the acquisition of every dollar. The
passion for acquisition, is another trait of
: character altogether. and degenerates to ava
: rice. The desire, followed in moderation,
makes great from our little men-the passion,
: INDUCED to excess, belittles our great ones.
Ns,p York Despatch