t accumulated surplus, without
capital, there can be no higher knowledge of life, no advancement of
it, no science and no art. Wealth is the possibility and the obligation
to gain and increase, for one's self and for others, the higher
benefits of existence; the rich man is not rich for himself; whatever
advantages he possesses in the way of knowledge, of improved machinery,
of invention, he has and uses in order to obtain more wealth than his
necessities demand; these advantages he possesses only by means of
others who have worked before him. In the last analysis, then, the rich
man is so through his own means, or for his own advantage; he is only
an administrator of the accumulated results of labor, and he must so
administer it as to serve the highest good of mankind. Look around!
there lie the fields, the vineyards,--whose are they? There stand
stones, boundary-stones, placed here and there over the land, as points
of legal division between mine and thine; no one can step over the
boundary of another, or encroach on another's domain; they are the
scattered stones, which, in the eye of the imagination, help to form
the great temple of law which protects humanity. Not so evident, but
not less firmly fixed, are the boundary-stones throughout life; you may
not encroach on what belongs to another, on the results of his labor
and of his natural powers. See! there the boatman directs the helm;
there the vine-dresser digs the ground that the rain may reach the
roots of his vines; the bird flies over the river; men row and dig,
animals fly and crawl, only to gain a living. Then comes temptation to
man and says,--'Let others work for you; live upon the sweat of their
brow; their bones are yours, consider them not; take gold for their
labor, gold weeps not, gold hungers not, gold complains not,--it only
glitters; when you have it, you can sing, dance, drive over men's
heads, be carried on their extended arms; don't hang back! the world is
a field of plunder where each one takes what he can seize.' So speaks
the tempter, but the spirit of the true life says,--'You are only what
you are in yourself; whatever worldly possessions you have are indeed
yours, but are not you; to-morrow they may no longer be yours; but
to-day they are, and you may multiply them a thousandfold, so that they
may be a blessing to you, and yours, and those around you.'

"If you have not genius--that is not to be acquired--then get character
and education,