Our race on both sides of the Atlantic has, for generations, got and
spent money faster than any other, and this spendthrift habit has had a
baleful effect on English life. It has made it more and more feverish
and unsatisfying. The standard of expenditure has been increasing by
leaps and bounds, and demoralizing trade, society, every industry, and
every profession until a false ideal has established itself, and the
aim of life is too commonly to get, not to be, while men are valued
more and more for what they have, not for what they are.
The reaction has, I trust, set in. But the reign of Mammon will be hard
to put down, and all wholesome influences which can be brought to bear
upon that evil stronghold will be sorely needed.
I say, deliberately, that no man can gauge the value, at this present
critical time, of a steady stream of young men, flowing into all
professions and all industries, who have learnt resolutely to speak
in a society such as ours, “I can’t afford;” who have been trained to
have few wants and to serve these themselves, so that they may have
always something to spare of power and of means to help others; who are
“careless of the comfits and cushions of life,” and content to leave
them to the valets of all ranks.
And take my word for it, while such young men will be doing a great
work for their country, and restoring an ideal which has all but faded
out, they will be taking the surest road to all such success as becomes
honest men to achieve, in whatever walk of life they may choose for
themselves.