om the hill-side and dances from rock to rock,
and the brook hums and murmurs its melody as it goes. Upon the
meadow, the springing grass tells of the process that annually
clothes the turf with wealth and beauty. The leaves put out, rustle
in the winds, and fall to their rest, while others follow. The
fierce, fiery energy of the lightning writes the truth upon the
scudding clouds. The formless waves that in the atmosphere ripple
and dash against the cheek, tell of a restless ocean around us, a
medium of health and sound. From the world that rolls, to the summer
flies that float on the air and glance in the sun, the truth is
proclaimed that all is activity. Man cannot be idle--should not."[3]

[Footnote 3: T.W. Brown.]

"One of the most mischievous phrases in which a rotten Morality, a
radically false and vicious Public Sentiment, disguise themselves,
is that which characterizes certain individuals as destitute of
financial capacity. A 'kind, amiable, generous, good sort of man,'
(so runs the varnish,) 'but utterly unqualified for the management
of his own finances'--'a mere child in everything relating to
money,' &c. &c.--meaning that with an income of $500 a year, he
persisted in spending $1000; or with an income of from $2000 to
$3000, he regularly spent from $5000 to $8000, according to his
ability to run in debt, or the credulity of others in trusting him.

"The victims of this immorality--debtor as well as creditor--are
entitled to more faithful dealing at the hands of those not directly
affected by the misdemeanors of the former. It is the duty of the
community to rebuke and repress these pernicious glosses, making the
truth heard and felt, that inordinate expenditure is knavery and
crime. No man has a moral right thus to lavish on his own appetites,
money which he has not earned, and does not really need. If public
opinion were sound on this subject--if a man living beyond his
means, when his means were commensurate with his real needs, were
subjected to the reprehension he deserves--the evil would be
instantly checked, and ultimately eradicated.

"The world is full of people who can't imagine why they don't
prosper like their neighbors, when the real obstacle is not in the
banks nor tariffs, in bad public policy nor hard times, but in their
own extravagance and heedless ostentation. The young mechanic or
clerk marries and takes a house, which he proceeds to furnish twice
as expensively as he can afford; an