Money has no doubt also a
tendency to make men poor in spirit. But, on the other hand, what gift is
there which is without danger?
Euripides said that money finds friends for men, and has great (he said
the greatest) power among Mankind, cynically adding, "A mighty person
indeed is a rich man, especially if his heir be unknown."
Bossuet tells us that "he had no attachment to riches, still if he had
only what was barely necessary, he felt himself narrowed, and would lose
more than half his talents."
Shelley was certainly not an avaricious man, and yet "I desire money," he
said, "because I think I know the use of it. It commands labor, it gives
leisure; and to give leisure to those who will employ it in the forwarding
of truth is the noblest present an individual can make to the whole."
Many will have felt with Pepys when he quaintly and piously says, "Abroad
with my wife, the first time that ever I rode in my own coach; which do
make my heart rejoice and praise God, and pray him to bless it to me, and
continue it.
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