the years since we were youths, it is because you either have failed to learn the laws that govern the building of wealth, or else you do not observe them. ‘Fickle fate’ is a vicious goddess that brings no permanent good to anyone. On the contrary she brings ruin to almost every man upon whom she showers unearned gold. She makes wanton spenders, who soon dissipate all they receive and are left beset by overwhelming appetites and desires they have not the ability to gratify. Yet others whom she favors become misers and hoard their wealth, fearing to spend what they have, knowing they do not possess the ability to replace it. They further are beset by fear of the robbers and doom themselves to lives of emptiness and secret misery. Others, there probably are, who possess such level heads they can take unearned gold and add to it and continue to be happy and contented citizens. But so few are they, I know of them but by hearsay. Think you of the men who have inherited sudden wealth, and see if these things are not so.”
His friends admitted that of the men they knew who had inherited wealth, these words were true, and they besought him to explain to them how he had become possessed of so much property, so he continued:
“In my youth I looked about me and saw all the good things there were to bring happiness and contentment. And I realized that wealth increased the potency of all these.
Wealth is a power. With wealth many things are possible.
One may ornament the home with the richest of furnishings.
One may sail the seven seas.
One may feast on the delicacies of far lands.
One may buy the ornaments of the gold worker and the stone polisher.
One may even build mighty temples for the Gods.
One may do all those things and many others in—4—
