method
is compulsion, not love. It has no thought to make itself attractive; it is
content to drive. Enthusiasm comes with the revelation of true and
satisfying objects of devotion; and it is enthusiasm that sets the powers
free. It is a sort of enlightenment. It shines straight upon ideals, and
for those who see it the race and struggle are henceforth toward these. An
instance will point the meaning. One of the most distinguished and most
justly honored of our great philanthropists spent the major part of his
life absolutely absorbed in the making of money--so it seemed to those who
did not know him. In fact, he had very early passed the stage at which he
looked upon his business as a means of support or of material comfort.
Business had become for him an intellectual pursuit, a study in enterprise
and increment. The field of commerce lay before him like a chess-board; the
moves interested him like the manoeuvres of a game. More money was more
power, a greater advantage in the game, the means of shaping men and events
and markets to his own ends and uses. It was his will that set fleets
afloat and determined the havens they were bound for; it was his foresight
that brought goods to market at the right time; it was his suggestion that
made the industry of unthinking men efficacious; his sagacity saw itself
justified at home not only, but at the ends of the earth. And as the money
poured in, his government and mastery increased, and his mind was the more
satisfied. It is so that men make little kingdoms for themselves, and an
international power undarkened by diplomacy, undirected by parliaments.

It is a mistake to suppose that the great captains of industry, the great
organizers and directors of manufacture and commerce and monetary exchange,
are engrossed in a vulgar pursuit of wealth. Too often they suffer the
vulgarity of wealth to display itself in the idleness and ostentation of
their wives and children, who "devote themselves," it may be, "to expense
regardless of pleasure"; but we ought not to misunderstand even that, or
condemn it unjustly. The masters of industry are often too busy with their
own sober and momentous calling to have time or spare thought enough to
govern their own households. A king may be too faithful a statesman to be a
watchful father. These men are not fascinated by the glitter of gold: the
appetite for power has got hold upon them. They are in love with the
exercise of their faculties upon a