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WEALTH

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military

success.

ood husbandry

6.nd.s wile 

chil

dren and

household.

The

good

merchant

larg

e

gains ships st.ocks

and

money. The good poet

fam

e

and

literary credit ; but not either the other.

Yet there is commonly

a

ronfusion of expectations

on

these points. Hotspu-.: lives for the moment

praises himsel£ for

it,

and despises Furlong  that he

does not. H otspur

of

OOUJ Se is poor

and

Furlong

a good provider. The odd circumstance is that

Hotspur

thinks

it a

su

periority n himself this

improvidence which ought to be rewarded with

Furlong s lands.

I

ha

ve not

at

all completed my design.

But

we

must not leave

the

topic without casting one glance

into

the i

nterior

rec ISCS.

t

is

a doctrine

of

phi

losophy

that

man is a being

of

degrees ; that there

is nothing in

the

world which is not repeated in

his body

his

body being a sort

of

miniature

or

summary

of the

world ; then that there is nothing

in his

body

which is not repeated

as

n a celestial

sphere in his

mind

; then there is nothing n hi8

bra.in which is not repeated in a higher sphere

n

his moral syst.em.

5.

Now theee things are so in Nature. All

things ascend

and

the royal rule of economy

ia

that it should ascend also or, whatever we

do

must always

have a higher

aim.

Thus i t is

a

maxim tllat

money

is

another

kind

of

blood.

e

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122

CONDUCT OF LIFE

cunia

alt

sanguia

or, the estate

of

a man

is

only

a larger kind of body, and admits of regimen

analogous to his bodily circolations. So there is

no

ma.xim of the merchant which

does

not admit of

an extended sense, e.

g.

1

Best use of money is

to

pay debts ; Every business by itself; Best

time is present time;

The right

investment is

in tools of

your

trade

;

and the

like.

The

count;..

ing-room maxims liberally expounded

are

laws of

the

Universe. The merchant's economy

is

a coarse

symbol of the soul's economy.

I t

is

to

spend

for

powel' and not for pleasure. I t is to invest in

come ;

that is

to say to take

up

particulars into

generals;

days into integral eras - literary, emo

tive, practical - of its life, and still to ascend

in

its

investment. The merchant h s

but

one rule,

absorb

and invest ; he

is

t 0 be

capita.list ; the

scraps and

filings must

be gathered back

into

the

crucible ; the gas and smoke must

be

burned., and

earnings must not go

to

inCl'ease

expense, but to

capital again.

Well,

the

man must be

capitalist.

Will he spend his income, or will

he

invest?

is

body and every organ is under

the

same law.

His

body is a jar in which

the

liquor

of life

is stored.

Will he

spend for pleasure?

The

way to ruin is

short

and

facile.

Will

he not spend

but hoard

for

power?

I t

passes through

the

sacred fermenta..

tions,

by

that law of Nature whereby everything

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WEALTH

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climbs to higher platforms 

and

bodily vigor 00

comes mental

and

moral vigor.

Th

e

bread

he

eats is first

strength and

animal spirits ; it becom

es

 

in higher laboratories imagery and thought ; and

in still higher results cow-age

and

endurance.

This is

the right compound interest ; this is cap

ita.l doubled quadrupled centupled ; man railled

to his highest power.

The

true thri t is always to spend on the higher

plane;

to

invest

and

inv

est

with keener avari

ce

 

that

he may spend in spiritual creation and not in

augmenting animal exist.ence. Nor is the

man

en.

riched in repeating the old experiments of

au i-

mal 11ensation ; nor unless through new powers

and

ascending pleasures he knows

him self

by

the

a c-

tual experience of higher good to

be

already on

the way to the highest.