gathering, of money. It decides how, and to what extent, we shall both save and spend. We must leave ample room for the play of generosity and honor; we must meet the demands of church and home and community with a wise and liberal hand; we must preserve a keen and governing sense of stewardship, never forgetting the ultimate use of money, and the moral and intellectual realities that underlie life. This matter of thrifty saving is instrumental,- simply to bring us into circumstances where self-respect, a sense of independence and of usefulness, are possible; or, putting it more closely, we save in order to get into the freedom of our nature. Were the wisdom of the whole subject gathered into one phrase, it would be: when young, save; when old, spend. But each must have something of the spirit of the other; save generously, spend thriftily. If I were to name a general principle to cover the whole matter, I would say: spend upward, that is, for the higher faculties. Spend for the mind rather than for the body; for culture rather than for amusement. The very secret and essence of thrift consists in getting things into higher values. As the clod turns into a flower, and the flower in spires a poet; as bread becomes vital force, and vital force feeds moral purpose and aspiration, so should all our saving and out-go have regard to the higher ranges and appetites of our nature. If you have a dollar, or a hundred, to spend, put it into something above the average of your nature, that you may be attracted to it. Beyond what is necessary for your bodily wants and wellbeing, every dollar spent for the body is a derogation of manhood. Get the better thing, never the inferior. The night supper, the ball, the drink, the billiard table, the minstrels, enough calls of this sort there are, and in no wise modest in their demands, but they issue from below you. Go buy a book instead, or journey abroad, or bestow a gift. I have not urged thrift upon you for its own sake, nor merely that you may be kept from poverty, nor even for the ease it brings, but because it lies near to all the virtues and antagonizes all the vices. It is the conserving and protecting virtue. It makes soil and atmosphere for all healthy growths. It favors a full manhood. It works against the very faults it seems to invite, and becomes the reason and inspiration of generosity. "And having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore.". ST. PAUL. "Hell (a wise man has said) is paved with good intentions.' Pluck up the stones, ye sluggards, and break the devil's head with them." — GUESSES AT TRUTH. "A mass, that is to say, collective mediocrity.” JOHN STUART MILL. "This above all: to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, HAMLET, i. 3. "Ask thy lone soul what laws are plain to thee, Thee and no other, stand or fall by them! This is the part for thee; regard all else For what they may be, - Time's illusion." BROWNING. |