No. 305,] 17 



are the ninety and nine who draw blanks'? And if attained, how 

 uncertain is its possession ! Wealth " gotten by vanity, " (by which, 

 I suppose, Solomon meant speculation,) " shall be diminished, but he 

 that gathereth by labor shall increase," is a doctrine as true now as 

 when first delivered ; and is one which the experience of every age 

 €nds to corroborate. 



And after all, what is the advantage of great wealth, or, what is 

 great wealth itself ? It exists only in comparison. " A man is as 

 well off," said the great capitalist of the United States, " who is worth 

 half a million of dollars, as he would be if he were rich." And one 

 of the satirical papers of the day tells us, that when Baron Roths- 

 child, the Jewish banker, read that the income of Louis Phillippe, 

 was only fifty dollars a minute, his eyes filled with tears ; for he was 

 not aware of the existence of such destitution. After the comforts of 

 life are supplied, wealth becomes merely an imaginary advantage, and 

 its possession does not confer any material for happiness, which an 

 industrious and fore-handed farmer does not possess. " We will con- 

 quer all Italy," said Pyrrhus to his prime minister, " and then we will 

 pass into Asia ; we will overrun her kingdoms, and then we will wage 

 war upon Africa ; and when we have conquered all, we will sit down 

 quietly and enjoy ourselves." " And why," replied his minister, 

 " should we not sit down and enjoy ourselves without taking all this 

 trouble ?" And why may not you, it may be said to many an aspirant 

 after wealth, enjoy in reality all you seek, in your present condition. 



" Give me neither poverty nor riches," was the prayer of one of 

 the sages of antiquity. And Lord Bacon, the wisest man of modern 

 times, says, " seek not proud riches, but rather such as thou mayest 

 get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly." 

 And can there be a truer description of a farmer's fortune 1 There is 

 no greater independence than that possessed by a contented, fore- 

 handed farmer. " Tell your master," said a Roman general, to the 

 ambassador of the king of Persia, who came to bribe him with great 

 wealth, and found him washing; the vescetables that were to constitute 

 his dinner with his own hands, " tell your master, that all the gold in 

 Persia can never bribe the man who can contentedly live upon 

 turneps." 



And the answer was as true in philosophy, as it was elevated in 

 patriotism. To be happy, man must limit his desires. And when he 

 has sufficient for his needs, should remember that the temptations and 

 [Senate, No. 105.] 2 



