CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
A WORD ON RICH FOLKS.
FROM DAWN TO SUNSET.
A SUMMER HOLIDAY IN NORWAY.
THE ADMIRAL'S SECOND WIFE.
TRICKS IN THE WINE TRADE.
TIT FOR TAT.
STORY OF A PARTRIDGE AND HER CHICKS.
THE FALL OF THE YEAR.
| No. 719. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1877. | Price 1½d. |
A WORD ON RICH FOLKS.
We have never quite understood why amongpreachers and moralists there should be such asweeping denunciation of riches. The rich manis called all that is bad. The poor man—nomatter that he had been a spendthrift—is prescriptivelyan ill-used saint, for whom notenough can be done. The older notions on thesubject perhaps originated in the fact that richeswere too frequently accumulated by robbery andoppression; which is not unlikely, for until thisday in certain eastern countries, of which Turkeyis a luminous example, riches are usually a resultof some sort of extortion, if not actual violence.And if so, we need not wonder that the poor werereckoned among the oppressed and specially worthyof compassion.
However the ancient opinions regarding richesoriginated, it is surely full time that new andmore rational views were entertained, or at leastprofessed, on the subject. In Western Europe,men do not now go about plundering and oppressingby armed force, as in the days of old. Thepoorest are protected by the law. As a generalrule, riches are accumulated by a course of patientindustry, and the reputedly wealthy are amongthe most careful in setting the example of doinggood. Of course our mixed state of society isnot without instances of wealth being realised byjobbery, by fraudulent exploits among speculators.But these are exceptions which a wise man doesnot fasten upon, except to point the moral, thatill-gotten riches seldom last long, and that theirpossessors are anything but respected. Why thenpersist in holding up the wealthy to reprobation?The truth is, the cry is little better than a sham.The very preachers who talk reproachfully andwarningly of riches, seldom fail to be as zealousin the pursuit of riches as their neighbours. Andin this no one can rationally blame them. Everyman within his proper calling is entitled as amatter of duty to himself and those dependenton him to use all legitimate means for betteringhis condition, and, if possible, increasing in wealth.It is indeed only by the prudential exercise