10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



THE CURRENCY, AND ITS EFFECT ON 

 THE FARMING INTEREST. 



From an Address before the Hampshire Agricultural Society. 



BY JULIUS H. SEELYE. 



First, we may ask the question, What is money? There 

 have been, I dare say, a great many different answers to this 

 question. Money is wealth, one says ; and so it is ; but, 

 then, all wealth is not money. Horses are animals ; but all 

 animals are not horses. Well, money is wealth everywhere, 

 to be sure, though wealth is not everywhere money. Thus 

 we see what money is not. We may inquire, What is wealth? 

 Wealth, — that is a very simple term. It is really a man's 

 weal, a man's well-being, — something good for a man to have. 

 Wealth is something useful, something beneficial, and it is 

 not possible for any man to have too much wealth ; it is not 

 possible for any community to have too much wealth. A 

 man or a community may very easily misuse wealth, but not 

 because there is too much of it. Man may misuse his health, 

 but he is never too healthy ; may misuse knowledge, but 

 never know too much. A man may misuse anything that is 

 good and serviceable, but it is not because he has got too 

 much of the good, but because he has not the right wisdom or 

 right will to use it. It is not possible that there should be 

 too much wealth for any man, or too much wealth in the com- 

 munity, for wealth is always useful. But we have got to add 

 something to this matter of usefulness to see what wealth is. 

 It has got to be something which is useful and which costs 

 labor to get it. That is the point. That is what makes 

 wealth. It has got to cost labor. Labor enters into wealth 

 everywhere that it is found. 



