Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1904-12-30

ing that there Sno harm In
Joyment OF a great superiority. is a.
indispensable to spread out this suner.
fluffy, to shock the eyes of those who
have not the necessaries, and to af-
fix this luxury close to poverty? Good
taste and a sort of modesty will al
ways hinder a portly man from speak
ing of his vigorous appetite, his peace
ful slumber, of his JOY in living. by
the side of some one who is fading
away with consumption. Many rcn
men lack tact, and sometimes by that
they lack even pity and prudence Are
they not from then on badly inspired
in complaining of the envy of others,
after having done all in their power
to provoke it?
But what they lack most is discern
ment, when they put their pride in
their fortune, or when they let them
selves drift unconsciously with the
seductions of luxury. Firstly it is to
fall into a puerle confusion to con-
slider riches q personal quality. One
could not mistake, in fashion more
simple, between the reciprocal value of
the envelope and it's contents. | do
not wish to bear too heavily on that
can one hinder oneself from saying
to those interested: Take care; do
not confound what you possess with
what you are. Learn the seamy side
of the splendors of the world, that
you may see the childishness and NOR
tai misery of them more forcibly.
Pride in truth lays traps too ridicu-
lous for us. We must susect a COM
panion which makes us hateful to our
neighbor and causes us to lose our
clearness of vision?"
Those who deliver themselves up
to the pride of wealth forget another
point-and the most important of all
which Is, that to possess is social
function. Without doubt, individual
property is as legitimate as the ex-
istence even of the individual and as
his liberty Those two things are in
separable, and it is an Utopia, full Of
dangers, to attack such elementary
bases of all life. But the individual
belongs to society with all his f1bres,
and all he does should be done in
view of the whole. To possess is,
therefore, less of privilege, which it
pleases him to glorify, than a charge
whose gravity he feels. Just as it re.
! quires one to serve an apprenticeship,
often difficult, to be able to exercise
all the social functions, so does that
function which is called riches exact
an apprenticeship. The greater part
of the people, poor or rich, imagine
that In opulence there is nothing to
do but to let ones self live. That Is
why so few people know how to be
rich. In the hand of a too great num-
Der wealth is, according to jovial
and redoubtable comparison of Luth.
er's, like harp in a donkey's hoofs
they have no idea Of how to use it..
So, when one meets man, rich and
simple at the same time, that is to say
who considers his riches as a means
of filling his humane mission. We
should respectfully salute him, for he
Is certainly somebody. He has con-
quered obstacles, surmounted trials,
and triumphed in the vulgar or subtitle
temptations. He does not confound
the contents of his purse with those of
his brains or his heart. and it is not
in figures that he esteems his fellow
men. His exceptional situation, far
from lifting him up, humiliates him,
because he really feels all that he
lacks to reach the heights of his duty.
He has remained a man. and that is
to say all. He Is approachable, will
ing to help, and, far from raising with
his goods a barrier TO separate him
from the rest of men. he makes of
them a means Of drawing more near
to them. Although the trade of being
rich has been singularly spoiled by so
many men, proud and egostistical,
this one succeeds in making himself
appreciated by whoever is not insen-
sible to justice. Every one, when ap-
preaching him and seeing his life. Is
obliged to turn to himself and ask:
What would have become of me I'M
der the same circumstances? Should
I have that modesty, that Indifference,
that probity, which causes one to act
with his own as II 1t belonged to an
other?" So long as there is a world
and a human society there will be
those harsh conflicts of interest; so
long as envy and egotism exist on the
earth, nothing will be more respecta'
BILE than riches filled with the spirit
of simplicity. 1t will do more than
to win pardon; 1t Will win love.
More malevolent than pride inspired
by wealth, is that inspired by power
and by power / mean here all powers
which one man may have over anoth-
err whether it is great or little. l see
no way of avoiding that there should
be men In the world unequally power
full. All organization supposes HER
archy of forces. We can never go
beyond that. But l fear that if the
taste for power is very widely spread
the spirit of power will be lost By
understanding it badly and by misus'
Ing it, those who hold any parcel OF
authority almost everywhere end by
compromising it.
Power exercises a powerful iniu'
ence over him who holds it. 1t needs