d
some poor boy or girl comes in, with open mind and poetic fancy, and
carries away a treasure of beauty which the owner never saw. A
collector bought at public auction in London, for one hundred and
fifty-seven guineas, an autograph of Shakespeare; but for nothing a
schoolboy can read and absorb the riches of "Hamlet."

Why should I waste my abilities pursuing this will-o'-the-wisp
"Enough," which is ever a little more than one has, and which none of
the panting millions ever yet overtook in his mad chase? Is there no
desirable thing left in this world but gold, luxury, and ease?

"Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough
to cover." "A man may as soon fill a chest with grace, or a vessel
with virtue," says Phillips Brooks, "as a heart with wealth."

Shall we seek happiness through the sense of taste or of touch? Shall
we idolize our stomachs and our backs? Have we no higher missions, no
nobler destinies? Shall we "disgrace the fair day by a pusillanimous
preference of our bread to our freedom"?

In the three great "Banquets" of Plato, Xenophon, and Plutarch the food
is not even mentioned.

What does your money say to you: what message does it bring to you?
Does it say to you, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die"?
Does it bring a message of comfort, of education, of culture, of
travel, of books, of an opportunity to help your fellow-man, or is the
message "More land, more thousands and millions"? What message does it
bring you? Clothes for the naked, bread for the starving, schools for
the ignorant, hospitals for the sick, asylums for the orphans, or of
more for yourself and none for others? Is it a message of generosity
or of meanness, breadth or narrowness? Does it speak to you of
character? Does it mean a broader manhood, a larger aim, a nobler
ambition, or does it cry "More, more, more"?

Are you an animal loaded with ingots, or a man filled with a purpose?
He is rich whose mind is rich, whose thought enriches the intellect of
the world. It is a sad sight to see a soul which thirsts not for truth
or beauty or the good.

A sailor on a sinking vessel in the Caribbean Sea eagerly filled his
pockets with Spanish dollars from a barrel on board while his
companions, about to leave in the only boat, begged him to seek safety
with them. But he could not leave the bright metal which he had so
longed for and idolized, and was prevented from reaching shore by his
ve