nd of supremacy in anything that is merely accidental or external to
a man. These things may sometimes stand as symbols of true merit and
greatness, but they are not themselves proofs of precedence. A man's
wealth may be the fruit of noble energy and honest toil, and he may
exert a wide influence by virtue of that intrinsic ability of which his
good fortune is the sign. Indeed, the more I study the world the more I
acquire a respect for these kings of enterprise--these heroes of
practical effort--who, feeling that they have been sent into the world
to do something, do not fold their hands and shut their eyes in ideal
dreams, or stumble at discrepancies, but lay hold of what lies about
them--rough stone, timber, iron, brass,--and become what it is really a
noble compliment to say of any man--"the architects of their own
fortune." I have great respect for these men who drive the wheels, and
kindle the furnaces, and launch the ships, and build the edifices, and
keep this sea of every-day action perpetually agitated by the keels of
their endeavor. Their claims to precedence, however, consist not in
their wealth, but in that which accumulates the wealth. But the man who
rests merely upon what he _has_, occupies no substantial ground of
supremacy. And if this is the case with those whose claim hangs merely
upon what they are worth in the world of money, it is at least equally
so with those who set their title to precedence upon their style of
dress or living. For how uncertain are all these things! depending upon
the fickle currents of fortune; throwing the honors into our hands
to-day, and transferring them to our neighbor to-morrow! How tantalizing
this conflict, in which victory changes with the fashion, and we feel
weak or strong according to the verdict of a clique! And all these
rivalries and envies and aspirations, what a confession of personal
feebleness they really are! How slightly a true man feels them, who
knows that he is not mere silk or furniture, and never frets about his
place in the world; but just slides into it by the gravitation of his
nature, and swings there as easily as a star! But the mere leader of
fashion has no genuine claim to supremacy; at least, no abiding
assurance of it. He has embroidered his title upon his waistcoat, and
carries his worth in his watch-chain; and if he is allowed any real
precedence for this it is almost a moral swindle,--a way of obtaining
goods under false pretences. But with