have drawn their inspiration. They
are closed and barred to him. He has bought the pictures, but he cannot
buy the key. The poor art student who wanders through his gallery,
lingering with awe and love before the masterpieces, owns them far more
truly than Midas does.

Pomposus Silverman purchased a rich library a few years ago. The books
were rare and costly. That was the reason why Pomposus bought them. He
was proud to feel that he was the possessor of literary treasures which
were not to be found in the houses of his wealthiest acquaintances.
But the threadbare Bucherfreund, who was engaged at a slender salary to
catalogue the library and take care of it, became the real proprietor.
Pomposus paid for the books, but Bucherfreund enjoyed them.

I do not mean to say that the possession of much money is always a
barrier to real wealth of mind and heart. Nor would I maintain that all
the poor of this world are rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. But
some of them are. And if some of the rich of this world (through the
grace of Him with whom all things are possible) are also modest in their
tastes, and gentle in their hearts, and open in their minds, and ready
to be pleased with unbought pleasures, they simply share in the best
things which are provided for all.

I speak not now of the strife that men wage over the definition and
the laws of property. Doubtless there is much here that needs to be set
right. There are men and women in the world who are shut out from the
right to earn a living, so poor that they must perish for want of daily
bread, so full of misery that there is no room for the tiniest seed of
joy in their lives. This is the lingering shame of civilization. Some
day, perhaps, we shall find the way to banish it. Some day, every
man shall have his title to a share in the world's great work and the
world's large joy.

But meantime it is certain that, where there are a hundred poor bodies
who suffer from physical privation, there are a thousand poor souls who
suffer from spiritual poverty. To relive this greater suffering there
needs no change of laws, only a change of heart.

What does it profit a man to be the landed proprietor of countless acres
unless he can reap the harvest of delight that blooms from every rood of
God's earth for the seeing eye and the loving spirit? And who can reap
that harvest so closely that there shall not be abundant gleaning left
for all mankind? The most that a wide estate