Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, XLVI. RICHES AND POVERTY. BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.' WHEN justly obtained, and rationally used, riches are called a gift of God, an evidence of His favor, and a great reward. When gathered unjustly, and corruptly used, wealth is pronounced a canker, a rust, a fire, a curse. There is no contradiction, then, when the Bible persuades to industry and integrity, by a promise of 10 riches; and then dissuades from wealth, as a terrible thing destroying soul and body.' Blessings are vindictive to abusers, and kind to rightful users; they serve us or rule us. Fire warms our dwellings, or consumes them. Steam serves man, and also destroys him. Iron, 15 in the plow, the sickle, the house, the ship, is indispensable. The dirk, the assassin's knife, the cruel sword, and the spear are iron also. The constitution of man, and of society alike, evinces the design of God. Both are made to be happier by 20 the possession of riches; their full development and perfection are dependent, to a large extent, upon wealth. Without it, there can be neither books nor implements, neither commerce nor arts, neither towns nor cities. It is a folly to denounce that, a love of which God has 25. placed in man by a constitutional faculty; that with which he has associated high grades of happiness; that which has motives touching every faculty of the mind. Wealth is AN ARTIST-by its patronage men are encouraged to paint, to carve, to design, to build and adorn: a MASTER MECHANIC-it inspires man to invent, to discover, to forge, and to fashion: A HUSBANDMAN-under its influence men rear the flock, till the earth, plant the vineyard, the field, the orchard, and the garden: a MANUFACTURER-it teaches men to card, to spin, to weave, to color and dress all useful fabrics: A MERCHANT-it sends forth ships, and fills warehouses with their returning 10 cargoes gathered from every zone. It is the scholar's PATRON; Sustains his leisure, rewards his labor, builds the college, and gathers the library. 5 20 Is a man weak? he can buy the strong. Is he ignorant? the learned will serve his wealth. Is he rude of 15 speech? he may procure the advocacy of the eloquent. The rich cannot buy honor, but honorable places they can; they cannot purchase nobility, but they may its titles. Money cannot buy freshness of heart, but it can purchase every luxury which tempts to enjoyment. Laws are its bodyguard, and no earthly power may safely defy it, either while running in the swift channels of commerce or reposing in the reservoirs of ancient families. Here is a wonderful thing, that an inert metal, which neither thinks, nor feels, nor stirs, can set 25 the whole world to thinking, planning, running, digging, fashioning, and drives on the sweaty mass with neverending labors! Avarice seeks gold, not to build or buy therewith; not to clothe or feed itself; not to make it an instru-30 ment of wisdom, of skill, of friendship, or of religion. Avarice seeks to heap it up; to walk around the pile, and gloat upon it; to fondle and court, to kiss and hug to the end of life, with the homage of idolatry. Pride seeks it; for it gives power and place and titles, and exalts its possessor above his fellows. To be a thread in the fabric of life, just like any other thread, hoisted up and down by the treadle, played across by the shuttle, and woven tightly into the piece-this may suit humility, but not pride. Vanity seeks it; what else can give it costly clothing, and rare ornaments, and stately dwellings, and showy equipage, and attract admiring eyes to its gaudy colors and costly jewels? Taste seeks it; because by it may be had whatever is beautiful, or refining, or instructive. What leisure has poverty for study, and how can it collect books, manuscripts, pictures, statues, coins, or curiosities? 10 Love seeks it; to build a home full of delights for 15 father, wife, or child. And, wisest of all, religion seeks it; to make it the messenger and servant of benevolence, to want, to suffering, and to ignorance. 20 What a sight does the busy world present, as of a great workshop, when hope and fear, love and pride, 2 pleasure and avarice, separately or in partnership, drive on the universal race for wealth: delving in the mine, digging in the earth, sweltering at the forge, plying the shuttle, plowing the waters-in houses, in shops, in stores, on the mountain-side, or in the valley-by skill, 25 by labor, by thought, by craft, by force, by traffic—all men, in all places, by all labors, fair and unfair, the world around, busy, busy -ever searching for wealth that wealth may supply their pleasures! . . . But I warn you against thinking that riches neces-30 sarily confer happiness; or that poverty confers unhappiness. Do not begin life supposing that you shall be heart-rich when you are purse-rich. A man's happiness depends primarily upon his disposition. If that be good, riches will bring pleasure; but only vexation if that be evil. To lavish money upon shining trifles, to make an idol of one's self for fools to gaze at, to rear mansions beyond our wants, to garnish them for display and not for use, to chatter through the heartless rounds of pleasure, to lounge, to gape, to simper and giggle-can wealth make VANITY happy by such folly? .. But riches indeed bless that heart whose almoner is BENEVOLENCE. If the taste is refined, if the affections are pure, if conscience is honest, if charity listens to 10 the needy, and generosity relieves them; if the publicspirited hand fosters all that embellishes and all that ennobles society-then is the rich man happy. ... On the other hand, do not suppose that poverty is a waste and howling wilderness. There is a poverty of 15 vice-mean, loathsome, covered with all the sores of depravity. There is a poverty of indolence-where virtues sleep and passions fret and bicker. There is a poverty which despondency makes a deep dungeon in which the victim wears hopeless chains. May God 20 save you from that! . . . But there is a contented poverty, in which industry and peace rule; and a joyful hope, which looks out into another world where riches shall neither fly nor fade. This poverty may possess an independent mind, a heart ambitious of usefulness, a 25 hand quick to sow the seed of other men's happiness and find its own joy in their enjoyment. If God open to your feet the way to wealth, enter it cheerfully; but remember that riches bless or curse you, as your own heart determines. But if circumscribed by necessity, you are still indigent, after all your industry, do not scorn poverty. There is often in the hut more dignity than in the palace-more satisfaction in the poor man's scanty fare than in the rich man's satiety. 30 XLVII. RIP VAN WINKLE. A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER. BY WASHINGTON IRVING.' 5 WHOEVER has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill Mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains; and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and 10 settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and 15 light up like a crown of glory. At the foot of these fairy mountains the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh 20 green of the nearer landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, just about the beginning of the government of the good |