RICH WITHOUT MONEY
Let others plead for pensions; I can be rich without money, by
endeavoring to be superior to everything poor. I would have my
services to my country unstained by any interested motive.--LORD
COLLINGWOOD.
I ought not to allow any man, because he has broad lands, to feel that
he is rich in my presence. I ought to make him feel that I can do
without his riches, that I can not be bought,--neither by comfort,
neither by pride,--and although I be utterly penniless, and receiving
bread from him, that he is the poor man beside me.--EMERSON.
He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth
of nature.--SOCRATES.
My crown is in my heart, not on my head,
Nor decked with diamonds and Indian stones,
Nor to be seen: my crown is called content;
A crown it is, that seldom kings enjoy.
SHAKESPEARE.
Many a man is rich without money. Thousands of men with nothing in
their pockets are rich.
A man born with a good, sound constitution, a good stomach, a good
heart and good limbs, and a pretty good head-piece is rich.
Good bones are better than gold, tough muscles than silver, and nerves
that carry energy to every function are better than houses and land.
"Heart-life, soul-life, hope, joy, and love, are true riches," said
Beecher.
Why should I scramble and struggle to get possession of a little
portion of this earth? This is my world now; why should I envy others
its mere legal possession? It belongs to him who can see it, enjoy it.
I need not envy the so-called owners of estates in Boston or New York.
They are merely taking care of my property and keeping it in excellent
condition for me. For a few pennies for railroad fare whenever I wish
I can see and possess the best of it all. It has cost me no effort, it
gives me no care; yet the green grass, the shrubbery, and the statues
on the lawns, the finer sculptures and the paintings within, are always
ready for me whenever I feel a desire to look upon them. I do not wish
to carry them home with me, for I could not give them half the care
they now receive; besides, it would take too much of my valuable time,
and I should be worrying continually lest they be spoiled or stolen. I
have much of the wealth of the world now. It is all prepared for me
without any pains on my part. All around me are working hard to get
things that will please me, and competing to see who can give them the
cheapest. The little that I pay for the use of libraries, railroads,
galleries, parks, is less than it would cost to care for the least of
all I use. Life and landscape are mine, the stars and flowers, the sea
and air, the birds and trees. What more do I want? All the ages have
been working for me; all mankind are my servants. I am only required
to feed and clothe myself, an easy task in this land of opportunity.
A millionaire pays a big fortune for a gallery of paintings, and some
poor boy or girl comes in, with open mind and poetic fancy, and carries
away a treasure of beauty which the owner never saw. A collector
bought at public auction in London, for one hundred and fifty-seven
guineas, an autograph of Shakespeare; but for nothing a schoolboy can
read and absorb the riches of "Hamlet."
"Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough
to cover." "A man may as soon fill a chest with grace, or a vessel
with virtue," says Phillips Brooks, "as a heart with wealth."
Shall we seek happiness through the sense of taste or of touch? Shall
we idolize our stomachs and our backs? Have we no higher missions, no
nobler destinies? Shall we "disgrace the fair day by a pusillanimous
preference of our bread to our freedom"?
What does your money say to you: what message does it bring to you?
Does it say to you, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die"?
Does it bring a message of comfort, of education, of culture, of
travel, of books, of an opportunity to help your fellow-men or is the
message "More land, more thousands and millions"? What message does it
bring you? Clothes for the naked, bread for the starving, schools for
the ignorant, hospitals for the sick, asylums for the orphans, or of
more for yourself and none for others? Is it a message of generosity
or of meanness, breadth or narrowness? Does it speak to you of
character? Does it mean a broader manhood, a larger aim, a nobler
ambition, or does it cry, "More, more, more"?
Are you an animal loaded with ingots, or a man filled with a purpose?
He is rich whose mind is rich, whose thought enriches the intellect of
the world.
A sailor on a sinking vessel in the Caribbean Sea eagerly filled his
pockets with Spanish dollars from a barrel on board while his
companions, about to leave in the only boat, begged him to seek safety
with them. But he could not leave the bright metal which he had so
longed for and idolized, and when the vessel went down he was prevented
by his very riches from reaching shore.
"Who is the richest of men?" asked Socrates. "He who is content with
the least, for contentment is nature's riches."
In More's "Utopia" gold was despised. Criminals were forced to wear
heavy chains of it, and to have rings of it in their ears; it was put
to the vilest uses to keep up the scorn of it. Bad characters were
compelled to wear gold head-bands. Diamonds and pearls were used to
decorate infants, so that the youth would discard and despise them.
"Ah, if the rich were as rich as the poor fancy riches!" exclaims
Emerson.
In excavating Pompeii a skeleton was found with the fingers clenched
round a quantity of gold. A man of business in the town of Hull,
England, when dying, pulled a bag of money from under his pillow, which
he held between his clenched fingers with a grasp so firm as scarcely
to relax under the agonies of death.
"Oh! blind and wanting wit to choose,
Who house the chaff and burn the grain;
Who hug the wealth ye cannot use,
And lack the riches all may gain."
Poverty is the want of much, avarice the want of everything.
A poor man while scoffing at the wealthy for not enjoying themselves
was met by a stranger who gave him a purse, in which he was always to
find a ducat. As fast as he took one out another was to drop in, but
he was not to begin to spend his fortune until he had thrown away the
purse. He took ducat after ducat out, but continually procrastinated
and put off the hour of enjoyment until he had got "a little more," and
died at last counting his millions.
A beggar was once met by Fortune, who promised to fill his wallet with
gold, as much as he might desire, on condition that whatever touched
the ground should turn at once to dust. The beggar opened his wallet,
asked for more and yet more, until the bag burst. The gold fell to the
ground, and all was lost.
When the steamer _Central America_ was about to sink, the stewardess,
having collected all the gold she could from the staterooms, and tied
it in her apron, jumped for the last boat leaving the steamer. She
missed her aim, fell into the water and the gold carried her down head
first.
Franklin said money never made a man happy yet; there is nothing in its
nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants.
Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. A great bank account can
never make a man rich. It is the mind that makes the body rich. No
man is rich, however much money or land he may possess, who has a poor
heart. If that is poor, he is poor indeed, though he own and rule
kingdoms. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to
what he has.
Some men are rich in health, in constant cheerfulness, in a mercurial
temperament which floats them over troubles and trials enough to sink a
shipload of ordinary men. Others are rich in disposition, family, and
friends. There are some men so amiable that everybody loves them; so
cheerful that they carry an atmosphere of jollity about them.
The human body is packed full of marvelous devices, of wonderful
contrivances, of infinite possibilities for the happiness and
enrichment of the individual. No physiologist, inventor, nor scientist
has ever been able to point out a single improvement, even in the
minutest detail, in the mechanism of the human body. No chemist has
ever been able to suggest a superior combination in any one of the
elements which make up the human structure.
[Illustration: Mark Twain]
One of the first great lessons of life is to learn the true estimate of
values. As the youth starts out in his career all sorts of wares will
be imposed upon him and all kinds of temptations will be used to induce
him to buy. His success will depend very largely upon his ability to
estimate properly, not the apparent but the real value of everything
presented to him. Vulgar Wealth will flaunt her banner before his
eyes, and claim supremacy over everything else. A thousand different
schemes will be thrust into his face with their claims for superiority.
Every occupation and vocation will present its charms and offer its
inducements in turn. The youth who would succeed must not allow
himself to be deceived by appearance, but must place the emphasis of
life upon the right thing.
Raphael was rich without money. All doors opened to him, and he was
more than welcome everywhere. His sweet spirit radiated sunshine
wherever he went.
Henry Wilson, the sworn friend of the oppressed, whose one question, as
to measures or acts, was ever "Is it right; will it do good?" was rich
without money. So scrupulous had this Natick cobbler been not to make
his exalted position a means of worldly gain, that when he came to be
inaugurated as Vice-President of the country, he was obliged to borrow
of his fellow-senator, Charles Sumner, one hundred dollars to meet the
necessary expenses of the occasion.
Mozart, the great composer of the "Requiem," left barely enough money
to bury him, but he has made the world richer.
A rich mind and noble spirit will cast over the humblest home a
radiance of beauty which the upholsterer and decorator can never
approach. Who would not prefer to be a millionaire of character, of
contentment, rather than possess nothing but the vulgar coins of a
Croesus? Whoever uplifts civilization, though he die penniless, is
rich, and future generations will erect his monument.
An Asiatic traveler tells us that one day he found the bodies of two
men laid upon the desert sand beside the carcass of a camel. They had
evidently died from thirst, and yet around the waist of each was a
large store of jewels of different kinds, which they had doubtless been
crossing the desert to sell in the markets of Persia.
The man who has no money is poor, but one who has nothing but money is
poorer. He only is rich who can enjoy without owning; he is poor who
though he have millions is covetous. There are riches of intellect,
and no man with an intellectual taste can be called poor. He is rich
as well as brave who can face compulsory poverty and misfortune with
cheerfulness and courage.
We can so educate the will power that it will focus the thoughts upon
the bright side of things, and upon objects which elevate the soul,
thus forming a habit of happiness and goodness which will make us rich.
The habit of making the best of everything and of always looking on the
bright side is a fortune in itself.
He is rich who values a good name above gold. Among the ancient Greeks
and Romans honor was more sought after than wealth. Rome was imperial
Rome no more when the imperial purple became an article of traffic.
Diogenes was captured by pirates and sold as a slave. His purchaser
released him, giving him charge of his household and of the education
of his children. Diogenes despised wealth and affectation, and lived
in a tub. "Do you want anything?" asked Alexander the Great, greatly
impressed by the abounding cheerfulness of the philosopher under such
circumstances. "Yes," replied Diogenes, "I want you to stand out of my
sunshine and not take from me what you can not give me." "Were I not
Alexander," exclaimed the great conqueror, "I would be Diogenes."
"Do you know, sir," said a devotee of Mammon to John Bright, "that I am
worth a million sterling?" "Yes," said the irritated but calm-spirited
respondent, "I do; and I know that it is all you are worth."
What power can poverty have over a home where loving hearts are beating
with a consciousness of untold riches of the head and heart?
St. Paul was never so great as when he occupied a prison cell under the
streets of Rome; and Jesus Christ reached the height of His success
when, smitten, spat upon, tormented, and crucified, He cried in agony,
and yet with triumphant satisfaction, "It is finished."
Don't start out in life with a false standard; a truly great man makes
official position and money and houses and estates look so tawdry, so
mean and poor, that we feel like sinking out of sight with our cheap
laurels and our gold.
One of the great lessons to teach in this century of sharp competition
and the survival of the fittest is how to be rich without money and to
learn how to live without success according to the popular standard.
In the poem, "The Changed Cross," a weary woman is represented as
dreaming that she was led to a place where many crosses lay, crosses of
divers shapes and sizes. The most beautiful one was set in jewels of
gold. It was so tiny and exquisite that she changed her own plain
cross for it, thinking she was fortunate in finding one so much lighter
and lovelier. But soon her back began to ache under the glittering
burden, and she changed it for another, very beautiful and entwined
with flowers. But she soon found that underneath the flowers were
piercing thorns which tore her flesh. At last she came to a very plain
cross without jewels, without carving, and with only the word, "Love,"
inscribed upon it. She took this one up and it proved the easiest and
best of all. She was amazed, however, to find that it was her old
cross which she had discarded.
It is easy to see the jewels and the flowers in other people's crosses,
but the thorns and heavy weight are known only to the bearers. How
easy other people's burdens seem to us compared with our own! We do
not realize the secret burdens which almost crush the heart, nor the
years of weary waiting for delayed success--the aching hearts longing
for sympathy, the hidden poverty, the suppressed emotion in other lives.
William Pitt, the Great Commoner, considered money as dirt beneath his
feet compared with the public interest and public esteem. His hands
were clean.
The object for which we strive tells the story of our lives. Men and
women should be judged by the happiness they create in those around
them. Noble deeds always enrich, but millions of mere dollars may
impoverish. _Character is perpetual wealth_, and by the side of him
who possesses it the millionaire who has it not seems a pauper.
Invest in yourself, and you will never be poor. Floods can not carry
your wealth away, fire can not burn it, rust can not consume it.
"If a man empties his purse into his head," says Franklin, "no man can
take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best
interest."
Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.
TENNYSON.
End of Project Gutenberg's Pushing to the Front, by Orison Swett Marden