CONFORMITY TO ENVIHONMENT 207 



we in ay have little respect for their philosophical 

 tenets. But how much has our scholar advanced the 

 morality of the community ? He has probably done 

 even more harm than the business man, who is a mere 

 " covetous machine." 



The " practical " man has reversed the sequence of 

 functions. Character is, and must be, first ; and 

 wealth, learning, power, and fame are the materials, 

 often exceedingly refractory, which it must subjugate 

 to its growth and use. And this subjugation is any- 

 thing but easy. The reversal of the sequence results 

 in a moral degradation and poverty indefinitely more 

 dangerous to the community than the slums of our 

 great cities. For these may be controlled and 

 cleansed ; but the moral slum floods our legislatures 

 and positions of honor and trust, and invades the 

 churches. The mental and moral water-supply of the 

 community is loaded with disease-germs. 



The social wealth of a community is the sum total 

 of the wealth of its individual members. And a com- 

 munity is truly wealthy only when this wealth is, to a 

 certain extent, diffused. If there is any truth in our 

 argument that the sequence of functions culminates 

 in righteousness and unselfishness, the real social 

 wealth of a community consists in its moral character, 

 not in its money, or even in its intelligence. We may 

 rest assured that character, resulting in industry and 

 economy, will bring sufficient means of subsistence, 

 so that all its members will be fed and housed and 

 clothed. And art and culture, of the most ennobling 

 and inspiring sort, will surely follow. And even if 

 such literature failed as largely composes our present 

 jfin-de-siecle garbage-heap, we would not regret its ab- 



