Money and the love of money often go together. The poor man, as
Emerson says, is the man who wishes to be rich; and the more a man has,
the more he often longs to be richer. Just as drinking often does but
increase thirst; so in many cases the craving for riches does grow with
wealth.
This is, of course, especially the case when money is sought for its own
sake. Moreover, it is often easier to make money than to keep or to enjoy
it. Keeping it is dull and anxious drudgery. The dread of loss may hang
like a dark cloud over life. Apicius, when he squandered most of his
patrimony, but had still 250,000 crowns left, committed suicide, as Seneca
tells us, for fear he should die of hunger.
Wealth is certainly no sinecure. Moreover, the value of money depends
partly on knowing what to do with it, partly on the manner in which it is
acquired.
"Acquire money, thy friends say, that we also may have some. If I can
acquire money and also keep myself modest, and faithful, and magnanimous,
point out the way, and I will acquire it.
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