RICHES HAVE WINGS;
OR,
A TALE FOR THE RICH AND POOR.
BY T. S. ARTHUR.
AUTHOR OF “KEEPING UP APPEARANCES,” “THE YOUNG
MUSIC TEACHER,” “LADY AT HOME,” ETC.
FIFTH THOUSAND.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY BAKER & SCRIBNER,
145 NASSAU STREET, AND 36 PARK ROW.
1849.
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1847, by
BAKER & SCRIBNER,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
S. W. BENEDICT, PRINT. & STER.
16 Spruce Street, N. Y.
CONTENTS
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION 5
CHAPTER II.
HUMAN PRUDENCE 11
CHAPTER III.
CONFIDENCE IN HUMAN PRUDENCE SHAKEN 24
CHAPTER IV.
SPECULATION 36
CHAPTER V.
ELDORADO 44
CHAPTER VI.
LOVE AND PRIDE 52
CHAPTER VII.
MERCENARY LOVE 64
CHAPTER VIII.
AFFLICTION 69
CHAPTER IX.
MENTAL PROSTRATION 75
CHAPTER X.
A GREAT DISASTER 81
CHAPTER XI.
CONSEQUENCES 92
CHAPTER XII.
LIGHT IN DARKNESS 102
CHAPTER XIII.
MORE REVERSES 113
CHAPTER XIV.
FAITH TRIED AND PROVED 119
CHAPTER XV.
WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH 125
CHAPTER XVI.
FURTHER RETRENCHMENTS 135
CHAPTER XVII.
THE USES OF ADVERSITY 146
CHAPTER XVIII.
MORE SACRIFICES 153
CHAPTER XIX.
A DISAPPOINTMENT 163
CHAPTER XX.
SURPRISE--UNEXPECTED RELIEF--GRATITUDE 177
CHAPTER XXI.
THANKFUL FOR EVERY THING 183
CHAPTER XXII.
CONCLUSION 188
RICHES HAVE WINGS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Riches have wings. In no country is this more strikingly true than
in our own. The social history of the world presents no era, nor any
people, in which, and among whom, such sudden and remarkable changes
in the possession of property have taken place. The man who is worth
a million to-day, has no surety that he will be worth a thousand
to-morrow. Children who are raised amid all the luxuries that money
can procure, too often, when they become men and women, are doomed
to hopeless poverty; while the offspring of the poor man, who grew
up, perhaps, in the hovel beside their princely mansion, is the money
lordling of their darker day.
The causes for this are various: mainly it depends upon our negation,
in the beginning of our national existence, of the law of primogeniture
and entailment of property. A man cannot be rich here in spite of
himself. He may be born to great possessions, but has the full liberty
to part with them upon almost any terms that please him; and such
alienations are things of every-day occurrence. One result of this is,
that property and possessions of all kinds are continually changing
hands, and thus placed within the reach of nearly all who have the
ability, as well as the desire, to struggle for their attainment. To
superior judgment, skill, and industry, when applied to the various
pursuits in life, comes the reward of wealth; while the supine and
self-indulgent, or those who lack a sound judgment and business acumen,
remain in moderate circumstances, or lose the property that came into
their hands at majority.
There are no privileged classes here, made such by arbitrary national
preferences of one over another. In the eye of the nation, every man is
born free and equal. The son of the humble artisan or day-laborer can
enter the same course, and start for the same goal, with the son of the
wealthiest and most distinguished in the land--and beat him in the race
if he be swifter of foot, and possess greater endurance.
The consequence of all this is, that wealth becomes a less and less
stable thing every day; for, in the fierce struggle that is ever going
on for its possession, as an end, and not as a means to a higher end,
men become more and more absorbed in the desire for its attainment,
and, as a natural result, more and more acute in their perception of
the means of attaining it. And the most eager and acute are not always
the most conscientious in regard to the use of means, nor the most
careful lest others sustain an injury when they secure a benefit.
Great instability in the tenure of wealth must flow from the operation
of these causes; for the balance of trade must ever be suffering
disturbance by the inordinate action, at some point, of those engaged
in commercial and business pursuits. This disturbance we see almost
every day, in the dishonest spirit of speculation and overreaching that
prevails to a melancholy extent. Business is not conducted, in this
country, on the permanent, healthy, honest, and only true basis of
demand and supply; but is rendered ever fluctuant and unsafe, from the
reasons just given.
The apparent causes of the instability alleged, are mainly those that
we have stated. But, as every thing that meets the eye is an effect of
something interior to it and invisible, so, in this case, the things
we have set forth are merely the effects of a spiritual cause, or, in
other words, of a perverted state of the _mind_ of the whole nation
viewed as one man; for the truth that a nation is only a man in a
larger form is undeniable. This perversion lies in the almost universal
estimation of wealth as a means of selfish gratification, and not as
a means of promoting and securing the general good; and from this
it arises, that nearly every man seeks to secure wealth to himself,
utterly regardless of his neighbor; and far too many not only covet
their neighbors’ goods, but actually seek to defraud them of their
possessions.
Every man is regenerated through temptations to evil, by means of which
he comes into a knowledge of his hereditary perversions; and it often
happens, that he is not only tempted of his evil lusts, but yields to
the temptation, and thus, in suffering the consequences that follow,
is made more clearly to see the nature and ultimate tendencies of the
false principles from which he had acted. And this is just as true of
a body of individuals (as a nation) as it is of an individual himself.
The law of primogeniture and entailment of property, which is not
a just law, lays, with its disabilities, upon the mind and ultimate
energies of the nation farthest advanced in civilization, because to
have abolished it would have resulted in a worse evil, even the utter
destruction of that nation by the fierce intestine struggle that would
have resulted therefrom, while there was no conservative spirit strong
enough to sustain it. But, in the fullness of time, this American
Republic sprang into independent existence, an outbirth of Anglo-Saxon
civilization, and prepared to take an advancing step. The law that held
in iron-bound consistency the English nation, was abolished, and all
the strong energies, eager impulses, and natural lust of wealth and
power, that distinguished the people of that nation, were allowed full
scope here.
In the history of the world’s regeneration, the time had come for this,
and there was virtue enough in the people to meet the consequences that
have flowed therefrom. These consequences, externally disastrous to
individuals as they have proved, have not been severe enough to check
the onward advancement of the nation. They are, in fact, a reaction,
upon individuals, of consequences flowing from their own acts, and
showing them that their acts were evil. The love of wealth, for its
own sake, needed to be regenerated. It was a great evil, fraught with
unhappiness. Its regeneration could only be effected in rational light
and mental freedom. That is, men must see it to be an evil, and freely
put it away. But, so long as a man secures the gratification of every
lust, just so long he sees it to be good instead of evil. It is only
when he is deprived of its gratification, through consequences growing
out of its indulgence, that he is enabled to perceive its true quality.
And this is just the effect produced upon the general mind by the
instability that attends the possession of wealth in this country. A
man who loves money for its own sake, and looks upon it as the greatest
good, is not at all likely to have his false view corrected, while
all is sunshine and prosperity; but, in reverses, he sees with a more
purified vision.
In a word, then, we believe that the cause why wealth is so unstable a
thing in this country, lies in the free scope that every man’s selfish
impulses find, and instability is only a salutary reaction. And, in
this seeming evil, we recognize a Divine Providence, still educing
good.
A change in our form of government, as some have thought, cannot,
therefore, effect a remedy for the evil which so many lament. Nor is it
to be found in penal statutes. It will come only when the whole nation,
as one man, shall be guided in every transaction, small and great, by
justice and judgment, and not till then. In the mean time, it is every
man’s duty, who sees and acknowledges this truth, to do all in his
power to give it vitality in the minds of the people.