Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1857-01-14
For the Spirit of the Age.
Extravagance.

Fondness for display, the craving for ell
egance and luxury, is a weakness, which
only youth, love and thoughtlessness can
excuse. All great, all good men, have
eitherdespised it from the outset, or speedi-
ly outgrown it. A volume of portraits of
the worlds hundred great men, with out
side and inside views of dwellings wherein
their lives were mainly passed, would prove
most instructive and salutary. The SIM
pllclty OF nature evinced in their counte-
nances would seem but a reflex of that ex-
pressed by their homes. The mind absor-
bed by grand or benignant purposes must
regard the %trappings of luxury as impedi-
ments, as distractions, entirely out of
keeping with the chief ends of our being.
AS a general rule, no man can be good for
much whose dinner consumes two hours of
his day in the providing and consuming of
II. Our great men in the way of traffic
McDonough, Girard, Astor, Gray, were all
extremely simple in their habits, quite as
much from taste as from economy. On
one occasion Astor, when solicited for cred
1t by a fur-buyer he did not know, took his
reference, and said he would promptly
make inquiry and give an answer
Meanwhile the customer bought a small
package for cash, and took it on his shoul-
der to take away with him. "Won't YOU
have a porter" asked the monarch of the
fur trade. Ono, l thank you," said the
buyer, can carry this myself" That's
enough" said the shrewd Jacob 1 don't
want to consult your reference YOU can
have credit here for all you will buy" So
1t Is with wise men the world over. They
DO Judge from appearances, but very diff
terently from the judgements of the moths
who are ever caught by glare. NcDon-
ou3h dies, and his entire wardrobe is ap-
priced at forty dollars, while his bequests
for philanthropic purposes amount to mil
hons. Glrard, too, lived a reputed miser,
but his Will nobly refutes the calumny. It
makes evident that he lived and saved to a
-~oE a
life the repreach of avarice is wholly in
applicable.
The vice of e~xtragance, of inordinate
expenditure, is one to which our country
men are especially addicted. We are a
sangaine people, and our past history and
rapid progress give p~lausibility to the most
magnificent expectations for the future
Looking back through a Century, our coun-
try's career in arts, industry, population,
wealth, would seem one uninterrupted and
sweeping advance; but if regarded more
closely, We find that this advance has been
htful and intermitted, like that of a rising
tlde-mark on the sandy beach !; and somee
times years of disaster have INTERRUPTED
the progress of improvement.
lie who calculates that the country will
De richer and v%aster, its trade more extern
slve, its industry more efficient, ffty wears
hence, than it now la, has every pro-
liability on his side but he who cherishes
the assurance that next years trade will
necessarily be more active and prosperous
than this, and incurs expenses and obIipa-
lions on the strength of that expectation.
Is very likely to be disappointed and Grin.
pied. Excessive confidence in ourselves
and our predestined good fortune, is the ma
tional defect. And care is needed that #
is not permitted to work our personal or
ha'ional downfall. MYRA.