s certain to draw forth a nice
distinction between the tastes of certain liquors, together with a
shrewd investigation of their several prices; and once, when the worthy
monikin undertook to show, from what struck me to be singularly good
data, that the foreign relations of the country were in a condition to
require great firmness, a proper prudence, and much foresight, he was
completely silenced by an antagonist showing, from the last sales, the
high value of lots up town!

In short, there was no dealing with any subject that could not
resolve itself into dollars, by means of the customary exchanges.
The infatuation spread from father to son; from husband to wife; from
brother to sister; and from one collateral to another, until it pretty
effectually assailed the whole of what is usually termed "society." Noah
swore bitterly at this antagonist state of things. He affirmed that he
could not even crack a walnut in a corner, but every monikin that passed
appeared to grudge him the satisfaction, small as it was; and that
Stunin'tun, though a scramble-penny place as any he knew, was paradise
to Leaplow, in the present state of things.

It was melancholy to remark how the lustre of the ordinary virtues grew
dim, as the period of occultation continued, and the eye gradually
got to be accustomed to the atmosphere cast by the shadow of pecuniary
interest. I involuntarily shuddered at the open and undisguised manner
in which individuals, who might otherwise pass for respectable monikins,
spoke of the means that they habitually employed in effecting their
objects, and laid bare their utter forgetfulness of the great postulate
that was hid. One coolly vaunted how much cleverer he was than the law;
another proved to demonstration that he had outwitted his neighbor;
while a third, more daring or more expert, applied the same grounds of
exultation to the entire neighborhood. This had the merit of cunning;
that of dissimulation; another of deception, and all of success!

The shadow cast its malign influence on every interest connected with
monikin life. Temples were raised to God on speculation; the government
was perverted to a money-investment, in which profit, and not justice
and security, was the object; holy wedlock fast took the aspect of
buying and selling, and few prayed who did not identify spiritual
benefits with gold and silver.

The besetting propensity of my ancestor soon began to appear in Leaplow.
Many of those pure