ers of the
upper classes: the people also are infected. I know more than one little
household, which ought to be happy, where the mother has only pain and
heartache day and night, the children are barefoot, and there is great
ado for bread. Why? Because too much money is needed by the father. To
speak only of the expenditure for alcohol, everybody knows the
proportions that has reached in the last twenty years. The sums
swallowed up in this gulf are fabulous--twice the indemnity of the war
of 1870. How many legitimate needs could have been satisfied with that
which has been thrown away on these artificial ones! The reign of wants
is by no means the reign of brotherhood. The more things a man desires
for himself, the less he can do for his neighbor, and even for those
attached to him by ties of blood.

* * * * *

The destruction of happiness, independence, moral fineness, even of the
sentiment of common interests--such is the result of the reign of needs.
A multitude of other unfortunate things might be added, of which not the
least is the disturbance of the public welfare. When society has too
great needs, it is absorbed with the present, sacrifices to it the
conquests of the past, immolates to it the future. After us the deluge!
To raze the forests in order to get gold; to squander your patrimony in
youth, destroying in a day the fruit of long years; to warm your house
by burning your furniture; to burden the future with debts for the sake
of present pleasure; to live by expedients and sow for the morrow
trouble, sickness, ruin, envy and hate--the enumeration of all the
misdeeds of this fatal regime has no end.

On the other hand, if we hold to simple needs we avoid all these evils
and replace them by measureless good. That temperance and sobriety are
the best guardians of health is an old story. They spare him who
observes them many a misery that saddens existence; they insure him
health, love of action, mental poise. Whether it be a question of food,
dress, or dwelling, simplicity of taste is also a source of independence
and safety. The more simply you live, the more secure is your future;
you are less at the mercy of surprises and reverses. An illness or a
period of idleness does not suffice to dispossess you: a change of
position, even considerable, does not put you to confusion. Having
simple needs, you find it less painful to accustom yourself to the
hazards of fortune. You remain a ma