LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 229 



now, as formerly, a simple matter of buying- and 

 selling, and living by the profits: it is now, rather, 

 a matter of speculative gaming. Every tmder, 

 almost, is a speculator; and his mind is, conse- 

 quently, kept perpetually vibrating between hope 

 and fear ; for he knows and feels that the turning of 

 a straw may make him, or mar him, for ever. 

 Never was the maxim, " Habe rem" &c. more 

 religiously observed than in the present day. No 

 man is satisfied to live and rear his family to tread 

 in his own steps. Every man is striving to be 

 wealthy. Men seem to have forgotten that the 

 end of existence is happiness. They appear to 

 have adopted the belief, that they were created for 

 no other earthly purpose than the accumulation of 

 money. They seem content to pass through life 

 without enjoyment; to exist in any way, no matter 

 how miserably, so long as they can but achieve 

 this apparently, to them, the sole object of their 

 existence : thus utterly losing sight of the end, in 

 the eagerness of their pursuit after what is, in 

 reality, only the means to that end. 



Another cause of that degenerate state of health 

 of which I have been speaking, is, eating too much. 

 All other animals eat because they are hungry, and 

 drink because they are thirsty : man eats because 



