THE CURSE OF PROSPERITY.

Western Star, Issue 979, 5 September 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE CURSE OF PROSPERITY.

It is one of the saddest features in human nature, that mankind generally are more capable of bearing adversity than prosperity. When smitten by misfortune, man displays such an amount of patient fortitude that it makes him an object of admiration; but, if his course be uninterruptedly prosperous, he becomes elated and puffed up with haughty pride. It is strange, too, that those who have once endured the frowns of fortune are most easily spoiled by her favours. It might be supposed that their experience would teach tbem meekness and humility; but it is rarely so. Oue who is suddenly elevated from a low estate drops his pitience, and often too many of his other virtues, as badges of his degradation, and puts on characteristics which he deems more befitting to his new position. They are like plants which, in the frigid zone, have so conformed themselves to the climate that they are able to pass uninjured through all its rigours ; but, transferred to the tropics, they lose all their hardiness, and become more delicate than the creeping annuals that never knew a chilling b reath. We every day see illus fcrations of this strange feature in our constitution. See ,for instance, that man who bears himself with such scornful pride, as if he thought the world could noi boast his peer. When he moves amid a crowd of his fellow-men he holds his head as one might do who walked among toads and all kinds of disgusting reptiles. You read in his countenance plainly enough that he deems himself formed of purer clay than these common mortals. He treads as if the ground were too vile for his touch; he speaks and acts as if there were a fascinating eloquence in all he says—a peculiar majesty in all he does. That man was once poor, and then none could surpass him in colLplaisance and affability. There is a lady arrayed in a splendid attire of silk and jeweilry, upon whose face pride and haughtiness are as plainly written as if they were printed. She is now rich and fashionable, and the " best circle " is proud to claim her as a member. But it was not always so. She was once a humble dress-maker, and then all admired the patient and honest industry with which she toiled for her bread. Her conduct at home and abroad was, as far as an observer could see, marked hy & most commendable propriety. But now all is changed. She now associates with those the hems of whose garments she was not previously thought worthy to touch. But where are thoss, who, in her days of poverty, gave her work and encouragement ? She knows them not. They are not of her " set," and she passes them with a cold stare that sends the hot blood to the cheek, but forbids all recognition. Prosperity has changed her heart as well as turned her head.