The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-08-22
WHERE VIRTUE Is.

One would naturally suppose that as
a people or a nation increased in wealth
the standard of morality would become
more exalted. and society throughout
more pure. That conclusion would be
arrived at from the fact that as people
increased in wealth their opportunities
for culture are improved; they have
more leisure 70 devote to self improve
ment 10 reading, to music. to CONVEX.
sstion. 70 travel; to all tho exercises
WHICH are supposed TO beget refine
nent in people, and ennoble the MIND
and heart Kweslthy people can afford
better schools for their children, more
beautiful homes, filed with everything
that can please the eye and cultivate
the taste. From wealthy nations. or
perbaps 70 q better purpose we could
ssv from the wealthy classes in any
nation we may expect the truest
refinement. the purest morality;
from those classes we may expect VIII
come our profoundest philosophers, our
most ssgaeious statesmen, our aoies'
writer's. the most astute lawyers the
6nest artists and sculptorss and those
Who viii shine in every elevated de-
partment of human existence. Yet
With all the advantage that wealth
brings. the wealthy classes turn out
comparatively few of the men WHO
build empires, direct human thought,
and adorn those professions where rain
mower and character are the motive
forces which gain the positions and
hold them.
A greater amount OF that which
masses current IN the world for refine
ment and. politeness you will doubtless
find among the wealthy classes. The
voung men in those circles usually
denominated the higher ones may know
how to talk nonsense to simpering
women in q b lr-rpom, and go through
the -nazes of q waltz with the
utmost grace. They may be most
pleas;ng- in all their cutter deport=
ment and as we say, may be re-
REGARDED as having monopolized that
winch passes current for refinement
but they do not furnish the men who be-
come noted for the wealth Of their men
tai attsiuments, strength of character or
those whose lives are the noblest and
purest. Ffh
There is a reason, Of course, for
this and this it is: Side by side with
the increased opportunities that wealth
brings for mental, moral and social i'm
movements, are the multiplied pleas
nrss aIlurements and temptations
wnicn luxury brings with it, and
Their iolnts unknit, their sinews nell
Aslithe tney grow as any willow wand
And of their paniEhed force remains nc
trace
II there is one truth that the god:
have made more emphatic than an
other. il is this: There is no excellencs
without labor" and il wealth is pos
sessed, 50 that every want may be sup
plied by merely making it known the
chief incentive to earnest work IS re
moved, and with that removed the
.exertious OF men who work, not ont o.
necessity but merely from the pleasure
thev derive from it, will not be sufh
Gent to develop the character, and cal
ou, the whole strength of the man
Had il not been for the business mis-
fortune of Sir Walter Scott, We car
hardly think thar he would have left u
with those sublime pictures of mora
grandeur and chivalric honor that W
find in his noble work. Had not Wash
;neton Irving met with his bushes
disasters he never would have enricheI
American literature with his thoughts
or elevated il above the scorn of Eng
Iish writer's. So il nearly all the work
Of life. on examination il viii be see
that the wants Of men are ID
secret forces that drive mankin
to those exertions which develop the nc
buity of their manhood. And as III
wealthy can supply their wants fror
their wealth without either mental o
nhvsical struggle, they pass throug
life without tnat oefe4OPu-eoe "uac'
such exerhons bring. tNs
Beng free'f from the necessity OF iAbo
to supply their wants, they sink withOu
reluctance into pleasures lap and dra'
their life from her voluPtuous breast
And then those Joys which plenty leads,
With up-toe step vice silently succeeds
xr-.,A .-,.itb has come new tempta
tons. and improved opportunities 4
gratifying every passion. and men VII
their fallen natures become easy slctt'
of opportunity. So that we nee1-n
look fer the best development OF NOR
charaeter in the most wealthy nj
tons. or among the wealthiest class
In the respective nations; inde'
asa rule they are the most corrupt. e