Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1858-02-04
MGstrllaneous.
From Emerson and Pufnam's Magazine
MONEY VERSUS WEALTH.

commerce." or bank-notes redeemable
in such coin. And what is wealth!
Coming from the comprehensive and
kindly old Saxon aceol, it is prosper
ity; riches; affluence; opulence." The
word money, as we use II, is an acci-
dent. Ii comes TO us from the fact
that the Roman mint was established,
for some reason of convenience, we
suppose, in the temple of Juno No
nefa-the Reminder. Hence mint and
money, the latter having served in all
ages since as very effectual reminder,
to small portion of each cultivated
nation, of vast power and resources in
their possession; and, to much larger
portion. of the straitened limits within
which the pleasures, the achievements,
and the culture of their lives must be
content to flow. To the majority,
Juno Moneta has not been a kindly
goddess. She, vastly more than Yes
ia, Hygcia, or Justitia, has taxed the
brains and consumed the powers OF
lawgivers. How strange, indeed, that
such dcathless fame has grown up for
scores of jurisprudents, simply from
their ownership of certain astuteness
in defining the distinctness of "meum"
and 'fuuns" in such way as always
to have a sharp eye to the "meumP'
We have sometimes wondered how
many "Blackstones" homeopathist
would get by trituration from one
Milton" The great work of moni-
tion our tutelary goddess has had to
do, we opine. has been to point with
her skinny finger, as times and lati-
tudes have changed, to the Tarpeian
rock, the "Old Baileys," or the mod
ern "Tombs," necessarily warning
crowds of hungry wretches not to lay
their hands on what their luckier fell
lows have appropriated. Rut 'cealth
should be possible alike to rich and
poor; it is all that is ecell-it is the
state of complete well-being
The difference between the two
money and wealh-astonishes us, be-
cause we have degraded the nobler to
parallel with the mcaner term
Wealth is all that soul and body de-
mand. If these be excellent of their
kind, their wealth is of refined and
beautiful sort. If they be coarse and
material, their wealth is at least
abundant Thoughts, fancies, feel
ings; companionship, sympathy, gen
tleness; consort, children, home; hope
and virtue; reflection, philosophy; po-
ems, ballads, hymns; histories, sci
ences, cabinets; houses, lands, cattle;
sunsets, light, air, rain, and winds;
paintings, statues, music; beautiful
persons and generous hearts; every
rational qualification of rational hui
man want-these are wealth. Money
is none of these 1t can not command
them for those who can not appreciate
them; no, not though the candidates
be worth their millions. 1t does ex-
clude countless numbers of men and
women from the realization of such
blessings and joys of life, because il
gets itself massed away in the Golfers
of leather Drained, shrowd men-tht
"dogs in the manger" of all social his
tory hitherto. Money, then, never car
be wealth. 1t may open the gate tc
wealth to one, but as surely ther
closes it on a score. Money is now
valued by large class in every com
munity as a convenient sieve to strair
out wealth from the common lot, or al
a press to squeeze it out from the re
luctant muscle and brain Of the mass
If the receiver be able to value and us,
what he gets, it = ill unfortunate
that so many are .eprived of their Joy
to insure his; if he be incompetent ant
narrow, then it is doubly unfortunate
Here toll million of men. Wher
are Mier libraries, cabinets, horses
and hounds, yachts, seats in the opera
or in the cushioned pew; where Mei
seasons of relaxation, well-appointe,
convivia! gatherings, hours of study
moments of manly pride? How mar
row they grow, in mind and heart
How mean the course of their effor
and liiG The rich man throngs tn
lecture-room, and yawns with ennui
he is not wealthy in this. The poo
man stays away because many mouth
ask bread, and he has only a moiet
of the actual product of his labors LEI
wherewith to satisfy them. No one
guilty of the mockery of styling hin
wealthy in this. The one party hs
surfeit and effeminacy-the other, des
titution and littleness; neither is bles:
ed in the relation.
We have, as a nation, just passe
out of a career of "unexampled pros
perity" May we not soon see its liz
again! How can that be prosperit
which ends, by the legitimate worl
ings of its own nature, in individu
and almost universal bankruptcy?-
We are not as rich as we though
That is evident; but it is a trihe. w
are not as good as we thought. Tn
is much more; but it is quite as und
niable. And so we pray each 9th
now to have confidence" and set Il
wheels moving again; but, mutual
we will not have confidence. o
prosperity was a cheat, delusion,
sham. What then? Did it come
do reading and writing, 'by nature
Is it an accident thing uncause
I'VE overtraded, built too many ia
roads. wore too many silks" Indee
Who lent the money that made the
things possible? Banks and indivi
ual usurers, we answer; and that n
for the good of the nation, nor of I
borrowers, but for their own prof
Expansion, the enlargement Of accol
modations infinitely beyond the ba'
On which they should rest-this G.
atcd a fictitious prosperity, of viii