THE CURSE OF WEALTH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7987, 16 March 1906, Page 3

THE CURSE OF WEALTH.

Mr Carnegie declares that it is a disgrace for a man to die rich, and Mr Nelsou, a brother millionaire, affirms even thut it is a disgrace for a man to be rich. Mr Rockefeller has admitted that money cannot buy him a new digestion, and now Mr David Forgan, a successful Chicago banker, asserts that the pursuit of woalfch does, in fact, destroy a man's soul. Philosophers and poor preachers have told us these things from the beginning of civilised days, but somehow they sound more convincing from the lipi of millionaires. Mr Forgan's description of the CALAMITOUS EFFECTS OF MONEY-HUNIING is not intended to apply specially to those who reßort to sharp practice, not to say down right dishonesty or cold-blooded cruelty; it equally fits the man who, keeping strictly within the limits not merely of legality but also of legitimacy, devotes himself exclusively to making profits on business transactions. He gives special prominenoe to the deleterious effect of such a one-aided life on the moral nature. It blunts sensibility, degrades ideals, smothers philanthrophy and hardens the whole nature. The process of DETERIORATION MAY BE SLOW, but, it is sure and its progress is so insidious that the viotim's friends see its unpleasaut reaalts long before he himself becomes conscious of them, if he over takes notice of them at all. Closely related to the distortion of the moral nature are the inevitable narrowing of the intellectual horizon and starvation of the aesthetic faculty. We are reminded of Darwin's complaint that life long devotion to physical science had killed his capacity for enjoying literature. The absorbing pursuit of wealth a man even of the breadth of view which he might obtain by the close study of nature. On all counts, therefore, great riches are a curse, and in the pursuit of them lies much sorrow.