nt of his high ambition. The
Humboldts never are too rich; they possess their gold and are not
possessed by it, and they are exempt from the duty of aiding others
because they themselves have a use for all their powers.

LETTER II

TO A GENIUS CARELESS IN MONEY MATTERS.

Danger of carelessness--Inconveniences of poverty unfavorable to the
Intellectual Life--Necessity advances men in industrial occupations,
but disturbs and interrupts the higher intellectual life--Instances in
science, literature, and art--Careers aided by wealth--Mr. Ruskin--De
Saussure--Work spoiled by poverty in the doing--The central passion of
men of ability is to do their work well--The want of money the most
common hindrance to excellence of work--De Senancour--Bossuet--
Sainte-Beuve--Shelley-- Wordsworth--Scott--Kepler--Tycho
Brahe--Schiller--Goethe--Case of an eminent English philosopher, and of
a French writer of school-primers--Loss of time in making experiments
on public taste--_Surtout ne pas trop ecrire_--Auguste Comte--The
reaction of the intellectual against money-making--Money the protector
of the intellectual life.

I have been anxious for you lately, and venture to write to you about
the reasons for this anxiety.

You are neither extravagant nor self-indulgent, yet it seems to me that
your entire absorption in the higher intellectual pursuits has produced
in you, as it frequently does, a carelessness about material interests
of all kinds which is by far the most dangerous of all tempers to the
pecuniary well-being of a man. Sydney Smith declared that no fortune
could stand that temper long, and that we are on the high road to ruin
the moment we think ourselves rich enough to be careless.

Let me observe, to begin with, that although the pursuit of wealth is
not favorable to the intellectual life, the inconveniences of poverty
are even less favorable to it. We are sometimes lectured on the great
benefits of necessity as a stimulant to exertion, and it is implied that
comfortable people would go much farther on the road to distinction if
they were made uncomfortable by having to think perpetually about money.
Those who say this confound together the industry of the industrial and
professional classes, and the labors of the more purely intellectual. It
is clear that when the labor a man does is of such a nature that he will
be paid for it in strict proportion to the time and effort he bestows,
the need o