ate had allowed it; his illness prevented this, and the
governor left it to the chaplain and the doctor to break the news to him
when they thought him strong enough to bear it, which was now the case.
In the meantime I received a formal official document saying that my
letter had been received and would be communicated to the prisoner in due
course; I believe it was simply through a mistake on the part of a clerk
that I was not informed of Ernest's illness, but I heard nothing of it
till I saw him by his own desire a few days after the chaplin had broken
to him the substance of what I had written.

Ernest was terribly shocked when he heard of the loss of his money, but
his ignorance of the world prevented him from seeing the full extent of
the mischief. He had never been in serious want of money yet, and did
not know what it meant. In reality, money losses are the hardest to bear
of any by those who are old enough to comprehend them.

A man can stand being told that he must submit to a severe surgical
operation, or that he has some disease which will shortly kill him, or
that he will be a cripple or blind for the rest of his life; dreadful as
such tidings must be, we do not find that they unnerve the greater number
of mankind; most men, indeed, go coolly enough even to be hanged, but the
strongest quail before financial ruin, and the better men they are, the
more complete, as a general rule, is their prostration. Suicide is a
common consequence of money losses; it is rarely sought as a means of
escape from bodily suffering. If we feel that we have a competence at
our backs, so that we can die warm and quietly in our beds, with no need
to worry about expense, we live our lives out to the dregs, no matter how
excruciating our torments. Job probably felt the loss of his flocks and
herds more than that of his wife and family, for he could enjoy his
flocks and herds without his family, but not his family--not for long--if
he had lost all his money. Loss of money indeed is not only the worst
pain in itself, but it is the parent of all others. Let a man have been
brought up to a moderate competence, and have no specially; then let his
money be suddenly taken from him, and how long is his health likely to
survive the change in all his little ways which loss of money will
entail? How long again is the esteem and sympathy of friends likely to
survive ruin? People may be very sorry for us, but their attitude
towards us hi