COMMERCIALISM. 301 



is to be the tendency to acquire in other words, 

 egoism and selfishness. 



It is needless to comment on what must be the 

 doom of a republic wherein the highest ambition 

 is the making of money. Wealth has its yses in 

 individual and national life. Perhaps no nation 

 can become great without great wealth ; but if the 

 a'ccumulation of wealth is made the end, if the 

 public mind has no higher ambition or loftier pur- 

 pose than this, then shall gold rule to ruin. If art, 

 literature, science and religion are all to be sacri- 

 ficed in order that the young American may be- 

 come a great financier, then shall the greatest 

 republic in history sink below the horizon of civil- 

 ization. 



Children born from honest parents are often 

 dishonest. Where parents devote their entire time 

 to making money so that the acquisitive instinct 

 is constantly exercised, their children are often so 

 selfish as to make it difficult for them to be honest. 

 Some years ago an evangelist and missionary 

 brought me his two children for study, declaring Dish^^. Cts 

 they were positively unlike and that he could not 

 understand how it was possible for brothers to 

 differ so widely. The elder one was a very bright 

 boy, studious, thoughtful, kind and unselfish; the 

 younger had a fair intellect, was very energetic, 

 but so abnormally selfish that he was almost un- 

 manageable. He wanted everything his own 

 way, would never willingly divide with others and 

 was given to pilfering. The first child was born 

 soon after the father and mother left college; he 

 was a student, as they had been. For three years 

 prior to the birth of the second child the parents 



