Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-08-06
Tun prnsn1r or WEA1rn.-ro nretend I

THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH.-To pretend to
despise or undervalue wealth, which is at once
the representative of labor and the means of so
much improvement and happiness, is simply an
atfectaton. 1t is at once shelter, food and cloth
ing, the means of culture and refinement, of
advancing science and art, of promoting educa-
ton, of discovering and ditfusing truth. The
effort which is so intently engaging most young
men Of this country to obtain a competency is
honorable and right, and if pursued with vir
tuous motives and within reasonable limits it is
itself one of the best of educators. 1t encour-
ages energy, industry and set-control, and gives
a strength and power of endurance only to be
acquired by such discipline.
Yet is strange that what thus appears to be q
source of so much good to humanity should so
frequently prove its bane and scourge. The
ambitious craving for wealth is perhaps the
most fruitful source of sorrow and crime that
exists among us. When it takes a thorough
hold upon its victim it Injuries his health, dwarfs
his intellect, and blunts his moral sense. 1t
stiles benevolence, brushes domestic and social
affection, and leads too often to base and I'M
worthy methods of accomplishing its end. How
much cunning and artifce, how much meanness
and dishonor, how much oppression and tyr
RAINY may be traced to this source.
Where, then, are the limits to be seti Who
can decide where the efforts to obtain an honor
able competence, to maintain family literally
and comfortably, to make a suitable provision
ing something substantial to the stock Of human
happiness, begins to degenerate into an inordi-
nate and overruling passion for wealth, that
brings its possessor under the dominion of self
ishness, and causes him to scatter only seeds of
misery over the community? Horace Mann says
that call above fortune is misfortune" but
as we can fix no standard as TO what a fortune
is, as the poverty of one is the wealth of an
other, his remark does not aid us to solu-
ton of this matter. Besides, we greatly doubt
the correctness of the assertion. There are
men, happily known to some of us, whose con-
tinually accommodating wealth, instead of injur-
ing their character only serves to develop it, by
widening their opportunities; whose true beney-
olence of heart and soundncss of Judgment
seek fresh outlets by which to bless mankind,
and to promote intelligence and virtue with ev
cry accession TO their means. 1t is true that
these may be exceptionabe cases, but they are
sufficient to prove that wealth in itself is no
misfortune, that there is a spirit possible to
humanity which can rise above its dangers, and
can convert them into untold blessings.
1t is Just here that we find the answer to our
question. The difference between an honest
and laudable effort to acquire an independence,
and an Unsuitable craving for wealth, lies not in
the amount that is desired or gained, but in the
spirit which actuates its pursuit and disposal.
Whether money proves blessing or a curse de-
ponds not on whether it be much or little, but
upon the motives with which it is sought, the
means by which it is acquired, and the uses to
which it is put. IL man longs for wealth as
an end, and for this labors and strives, and de-
mics himself and his family the comforts of life,
it can never be blessing to him though he
amass millions Neither will it be likely to
bless those who inherit it. Inherited wealth
usually takes away the stimulus to effort and
the restraints to indulgence, and tends to ener-
vate aud debase those into whose hands it falls.
1t is always the money that is fairly earned by
honorable exertion and perseyering industry,
that prospers the most IN the hands of the pos.
cpssor