Signal-Copiahan. (Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1886-09-23
WHAT is WEALTH.
An Important Question Viewed from
~ ..fil PhllosuphIc Standpoint.

/ FniOsupnic StauuFo"'
Wealth can not be any mere sum OF
money. Money has no settled value.
In one place. among certain eondi-
tions, you can got for n mere triilc
what YOU can not buy with thousand
pounds somewhere else. What will
purchase pure air and clear sky in No
vcmbcr' Millionaircs cry ont for them
in vain. Yet some poor woman, say IN
Shetland, who never sees money, but
exchanges her knitting work for her
triilc of tea and cloth, can get tho
bracing wind and the bright sky for
nothing. We all know how seriously
this consideration should enter into our
estimate of the real Improvement 10 bc
| looked for in any change of our place
or prospects. What better OF are we
in going somewhere TO earn double
wages il all the commodities of life
there cost three times rs much rs where
we are now? People rush of to the
capital cities to "bcttcr' themselves,
by earning a few shillings more per
week or few hundreds more per year,
rs the case may be. They generally
find that the things they must have alb
sorb all tho apparent surplus, while
many thing. which they had before,
and ought to have, they have TO resign
altogether.
Wealth does not consist Of possession
of any kind. Take IN illustration: y
man is wrecked on desert island; the
ship runs aground, and he finds him.
self 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 bcgSar who WINS hum
bic meal by sweeping doorstep or
wedding garden. Indeed there is no
poverty so terrible rs the possession of
every thing except what We want. The
Persian poet Sadi has story Oh this
point. He says:
ii saw an Arab sitting in circle OF
jcwclcr, of Basrah. and relating rs fol-
lows: Once OH time, having missed
my way in the desert and having no
provisions left, | gave myself up for
lost, when happcucdto find a bag full
of pearls. shall never forget the rel
ish and dcligh, that felt on supposinG
it to he fried wheat, nor the bitterness
aud despair which suffered on diScov-
cring that the bag contained pearls. "
Still less does wealth consist in mere
accumulation; we really do not have
what We DO not use. \ miscr had n
store of buried gold. over which he
used secretly 10 gloat. n THE! stole 1t
away and II wise man Stroyc to comfort
the miscr by pcrsuading him TO bury
some oyster shells in it, place, and TO
visit them aud chucklc over them, a
he had done over the gold.
Now let Us turn TO what wealth is in
the higher sense. Wealth is the salts
faction of those needs of human life
which, il unsatisiicd, check its harmo-
niouS development. No man can b.
wealthy till he finds out the limits Of
his needs. for "want is a growing
giant whom tho coat of Have was
never large enough to cover" so we
can not find ont what wealth is till we
find out what these needs are.
Our bodily needs are pure air, good
water, wholesome food, sufficient cloth
ing and shelter, labor and rest. Our
mental needs are the education of our
senses, some leisure and some intel
lcctual nourishmcnt, either from books
or society. Our spiritual needs are
love and duiy.-L Z. Mayo, m Sunday
al