re others' comforts sacrificed to it; are
others' rights buried in it; are others' opportunities smothered in it;
others' chances strangled by it; has their growth been stunted by it;
their characters stained by it; have others a smaller loaf, a meaner
home? If so, you have failed; all your millions cannot save you from the
curse, "thou hast been weighed in the balance and found wanting."

When Walter Scott's publisher and printer failed and $600,000 of debt
stared them in the face, friends came forward and offered to raise money
enough to allow him to arrange with his creditors. "No," said he
proudly, "this right hand shall work it all off; if we lose everything
else, we will at least keep our honor unblemished." What a grand picture
of manliness, of integrity in this noble man, working like a dray-horse
to cancel that great debt, throwing off at white heat the "Life of
Napoleon," "Woodstock," "The Tales of a Grandfather," articles for the
"Quarterly," and so on, all written in the midst of great sorrow, pain,
and ruin. "I could not have slept soundly," he writes, "as I now can
under the comfortable impression of receiving the thanks of my creditors,
and the conscious feeling of discharging my duty as a man of honesty. I
see before me a long, tedious, and dark path, but it leads to stainless
reputation. If I die in the harness, as is very likely, I shall die with
honor."

One of the last things he uttered was, "I have been, perhaps, the most
voluminous author of my day, and it is a comfort to me to think that I
have tried to unsettle no man's faith, to corrupt no man's principles,
and that I have written nothing which, on my deathbed, I would wish
blotted out."

Although Agassiz refused to lecture even for a large sum of money, yet he
left a greater legacy to the world, and left even more money to Harvard
University ($300,000) than he would have left if he had taken the time to
lecture for money.

Faraday had to choose between a fortune of nearly a million and a life of
almost certain poverty if he pursued science. He chose poverty and
science, and earned a name never to be erased from the book of fame.

Beecher says that we are all building a soul-house for eternity; yet with
what differing architecture and what various care!

What if a man should see his neighbor getting workmen and building
materials together, and should say to him, "What are you building?" and
he should answer, "I don't exactly know.