The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-08-21
What is Wealth.


Wealth cannot be any mere sum of
money. Money has no settled value. In
one place, among certain conditions, you
can get for a mere trife what you cannot
buy with a thousand pounds somewhere
else. What will purchase pure air and
clear sky in the heart of London in No
vember? Millionaires cry out for them in
vain. Yet some poor woman, say in
Shetland, who never sees money, but who
exchanges her knitting work for her triAe
of tea and cloth, can get the bracing wind
aud the bright sky for nothing We all
know how seriously this consideration
should enter into our estimation of the
real Improvement to be looked for in any
change of our place or prospects. What
better off are we in going somewhere to
earn double wages if all the commodities
of life there cost three times as much as
where we are now? People rush off to
capital cities to 'better'' themselves, by
earning few shillings more per week or
few hundreds more per year, as the case
may be. They generally find that the
things they must have absorb all the ap-
parent surplus, while many things which
they had before, and ought to have, they
have to resign altogether.
Wealth does not consist of possession of
any kind. Take an illustration man is
wrecked on desert island the ship runs
aground and he finds himself the owner of
bags of bullion and precious stones, of rare
books and rich fabrics. But he can get
no fresh water. Presently he dies of
thirst-a poorer man than the beggar who
wins an humble meal by sweeping door
step or wedding garden. Indeed there
is no poverty SO terrible as the possession
of everything except what we want The
Persian poet Sadi has a story on this point.
He says:
II saw an Arab sitting in a circle of
jewellers, and relating as follows Once on
time, having missed my way in the des-
ert, and having no provisions left, gave
myself up for lost, when l happened to
find bag full of pearls. 1 shall never
forget the relish and delight that I felt on
supposing it to be fried wheat, nor the
bitterness and despair which I suffered on
discovering that the bag contained pearls. ;"
Still less does wealth consist in mere ac-
cumulation; we really do not have what
we do not use. A miser had store of
buried gold, over which he used secretly
to gloat. A thief stole it away, and wise
man tried to comfort the miser by persuad-
ing him to bury some oyster shells in its
place, and to visit them and chuckle over
them as he had done over the gold.
Now let us turn to what wealth is in the
higher sense. Wealth is the satisfaction
of those needs of human life which, if un-
satisfied, check its harmonious develop
ment. No man can be wealthy till he
finds out the limits of his needs, for "Want
is growing giant whom the ceat of Have
was never large enough to cover" So we
cannot find out what wealth is till we find
out what these needs are.
Our bodily needs are pure air, good wa
ter, sunshine, wholesome food, sufficient
clothing and shelter, labor and rest. Our
mental needs are the education of our SEN
ses, some leisure and some intellectual
nourishment, either from books or society.
Our spiritual needs are love and duty
Sunday at Home.