Increase Of Population Is, I Take It, The
Only Trustworthy Sign Of A Nation's Success Or Of A City's Success.
We boast that London has beaten the other cities of the world, and
think that that boast is enough to
Cover all the social sins for
which London has to confess her guilt. New York, beginning with
60,000 sixty years since, has now a million souls - a million
mouths, all of which eat a sufficiency of bread, all of which speak
ore rotundo, and almost all of which can read. And this has come
of its love of dollars.
For myself I do not believe that Dives is so black as he is painted
or that his peril is so imminent. To reconcile such an opinion
with holy writ might place me in some difficulty were I a
clergyman. Clergymen, in these days, are surrounded by
difficulties of this nature - finding it necessary to explain away
many old-established teachings which narrowed the Christian Church,
and to open the door wide enough to satisfy the aspirations and
natural hopes of instructed men. The brethren of Dives are now so
many and so intelligent that they will no longer consent to be
damned without looking closely into the matter themselves. I will
leave them to settle the matter with the Church, merely assuring
them of my sympathy in their little difficulties in any case in
which mere money causes the hitch.
To eat his bread in the sweat of his brow was man's curse in Adam's
day, but is certainly man's blessing in our day. And what is
eating one's bread in the sweat of one's brow but making money? I
will believe no man who tells me that he would not sooner earn two
loaves than one - and if two, then two hundred. I will believe no
man who tells me that he would sooner earn one dollar a day than
two - and if two, then two hundred. That is, in the very nature of
the argument, caeteris paribus. When a man tells me that he would
prefer one honest loaf to two that are dishonest, I will, in all
possible cases, believe him. So also a man may prefer one quiet
loaf to two that are unquiet. But under circumstances that are the
same, and to a man who is sane, a whole loaf is better than half,
and two loaves are better than one. The preachers have preached
well, but on this matter they have preached in vain. Dives has
never believed that he will be damned because he is Dives. He has
never even believed that the temptations incident to his position
have been more than a fair counterpoise, or even so much as a fair
counterpoise, to his opportunities for doing good. All men who
work desire to prosper by their work, and they so desire by the
nature given to them from God. Wealth and progress must go on hand
in hand together, let the accidents which occasionally divide them
for a time happen as often as they may.
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