The ingenious but sometimes fanciful Dr. Darwin, reckons the fear of
poverty as a disease, and goes on to prescribe for it.
The truth is, there is not much _real_ poverty in this country. Our
very paupers are rich, for they usually have plenty of wholesome food,
and comfortable clothing, and what could a Croesus, with all _his_
riches, have more? Poverty exists much more in imagination than in
reality. The _shame of being thought poor_, is a great and fatal
weakness, to say the least. It depends, it is true, much upon the
fashion.
So long as the phrase 'he is a good man,' means that the person spoken
of is rich, we need not wonder that every one wishes to be thought
richer than he is. When adulation is sure to follow wealth, and when
contempt would be sure to follow many if they were not wealthy; when
people are spoken of with deference, and even lauded to the skies
because their riches are very great; when this is the case, I say, we
need not wonder if men are ashamed to be thought poor. But this is one
of the greatest dangers which young people have to encounter in setting
out in life. It has brought thousands and hundreds of thousands to
pecuniary ruin.
One of the most amiable features of _good_ republican society is this;
that men seldom boast of their riches, or disguise their poverty, but
speak of both, as of any other matters that are proper for
conversation. No man shuns another because he is poor; no man is
preferred to another because he is rich. In hundreds and hundreds of
instances have men in this country, not worth a shilling, been chosen
by the people to take care of their rights and interests, in preference
to men who ride in their carriages.
The shame of being thought poor leads to everlasting efforts to
_disguise_ one's poverty. The carriage--the domestics--the wine--the
spirits--the decanters--the glass;--all the table apparatus, the
horses, the dresses, the dinners, and the parties, must be kept up; not
so much because he or she who keeps or gives them has any pleasure
arising therefrom, as because not to keep and give them, would give
rise to a suspicion of _a want of means_. And thus thousands upon
thousands are yearly brought into a state of real poverty, merely by
their great anxiety not to be thought poor. Look around you carefully,
and see if this is not so.
In how many instances have you seen amiable and industrious families
brought to ruin by nothing else but the fear they _should_ be? Resolve,
then, from the first, to set this false shame at defiance. When you
have done that, effectually, you have laid the corner-stone of mental
tranquillity.
There are thousands of families at this very moment, struggling to keep
up appearances. They feel that it makes them miserable; but you can no
more induce them to change their course, than you can put a stop to the
miser's laying up gold.
Farmers accommodate themselves to their condition more easily than
merchants, mechanics, and professional men. They live at a greater
distance from their neighbors; they can change their style of living
without being perceived; they can put away the decanter, change the
china for something plain, and the world is none the wiser for it. But
the mechanic, the doctor, the attorney, and the trader cannot make the
change so quietly and unseen.
Stimulating drink, which is a sort of criterion of the scale of
living,--(or scale to the plan,)--a sort of key to the tune;--this is
the thing to banish first of all, because all the rest follow; and in a
short time, come down to their proper level.
Am I asked, what is a glass of wine? I answer, _it is every thing_. It
creates a demand for all the other unnecessary expenses; it is
injurious to health, and must be so. Every bottle of wine that is drank
contains a portion of _spirit_, to say nothing of other drugs still
more poisonous; and of all friends to the doctors, alcoholic drinks are
the greatest. It is nearly the same, however, with strong tea and
coffee. But what adds to the folly and wickedness of using these
drinks, the parties themselves do not always drink them by _choice_;
and hardly ever because they believe they are useful;--but from mere
ostentation, or the fear of being thought either _rigid_ or _stingy_.
At this very moment, thousands of families daily use some half a dozen
drinks, _besides the best_, because if they drank water only, they
might not be regarded as genteel; or might be suspected of poverty. And
thus they waste their property and their health.
Poverty frequently arises from the very virtues of the impoverished
parties. Not so frequently, I admit, as from vice, folly, and
indiscretion; but still very frequently. And as it is according to
scripture not to 'despise the poor, _because_ he is poor,' so we ought
not to honor the rich merely because he is rich. The true way is to
take a fair survey of the character of a man as exhibited in his
conduct; and to respect him, or otherwise, according to a due estimate
of that character.
Few countries exhibit more of those fatal terminations of life, called
suicides, than _this_. Many of these unnatural crimes arise from an
unreasonable estimate of the evils of poverty. Their victims, it is
true, may be called insane; but their insanity almost always arises
from the dread of poverty. Not, indeed, from the dread of the want of
means for sustaining life, or even _decent_ living; but from the dread
of being thought or known to be poor;--from the dread of what is called
falling in the scale of society.[8]
Viewed in its true light, what is there in poverty that can tempt a man
to take away his own life? He is the same man that he was before; he
has the same body and the same mind. Suppose he can foresee an
alteration in his _dress_ or his _diet_, should he kill himself on that
account? Are these all the things that a man wishes to live for?
I do not deny that we ought to take care of our means, use them
prudently and sparingly, and keep our expenses always within the limits
of our income, be that what it may. One of the effectual means of doing
this, is to purchase with ready money. On this point, I have already
remarked at length, and will only repeat here the injunction of St.
Paul; 'Owe no man any thing;' although the fashion of the whole world
should be against you.
Should you regard the advice of this section, the counsels of the next
will be of less consequence; for you will have removed one of the
strongest inducements to speculation, as well as to overtrading.
[8] I should be sorry to be understood as affirming that a
majority of suicidal acts are the result of intemperance;--by no
means. My own opinion is, that if there be a single vice more
fruitful of this horrid crime than any other, it is gross
sensuality. The records of insane hospitals, even in this country
will show, that this is not mere conjecture. As it happens,
however, that the latter vice is usually accompanied by
intemperance in eating and drinking, by gambling, &c., the blame
is commonly thrown, not on the principal agent concerned in the
crime, but on the accomplices.