ral that the landed proprietor should desire to preserve
those familiar scenes, which are the source of his own prosperity, to
those nearest and dearest to him. But there must be means to this end,
and these means are the making his own existence available for the
maintenance and increase of his patrimony. Where energy dies in families
or individuals, then it is well that their means die too, that their
money should circulate through other hands, and their plowshare pass to
those who can guide it better. A family that has become effete through
luxury ought to sink down into common life, to make room for the
uprising of fresh energies and faculties. Every one who seeks, at the
cost of free activity for others, to preserve permanent possessions and
privileges for himself or his family, I must look upon as an enemy to
the healthy development of our social state. And if such a man ruin
himself in his endeavors, I should feel no malicious pleasure in his
downfall, but I should say that he is rightly served, because he has
sinned against a fundamental law of our social being; consequently, I
should consider it doubly wrong to support this man, because I could but
fear that I should thus be supporting an unsound condition of the body
politic."

Anton looked down mournfully. He had expected sympathy and warm
concurrence, and he met with disaffection and coldness that he despaired
of conquering. "I can not gainsay you," he at length replied; "but in
this case I can not feel as you do. I have been witness to the
unspeakable distress in the baron's family, and my whole soul is full
of sadness and sympathy, and of the wish to do something for those who
have opened their heart to me. After what you have said, I dare no
longer ask you to trouble yourself with their affairs, but I have
promised the baroness to assist her as far as my small powers permit,
and your kindness allows. I implore you to grant me permission to do
this. I shall endeavor to be regular in my attendance at the office, but
if during the next few weeks I am occasionally absent, I must ask you to
excuse me."

Once more the merchant walked up and down the room, and then, looking at
Anton's excited face, with deep seriousness and something of regret, he
replied, "Remember, Wohlfart, that every occupation which excites the
mind soon obtains a hold over a man, which may retard as well as advance
his success in life. It is this which makes it difficult to me to agree
t