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第11章

lay morals-第11章

小说: lay morals 字数: 每页4000字

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At least; we have gained a very obvious point: that WHAT A  MAN SPENDS UPON HIMSELF; HE SHALL HAVE EARNED BY SERVICES TO  THE RACE。  Thence flows a principle for the outset of life;  which is a little different from that taught in the present  day。  I am addressing the middle and the upper classes; those  who have already been fostered and prepared for life at some  expense; those who have some choice before them; and can pick  professions; and above all; those who are what is called  independent; and need do nothing unless pushed by honour or  ambition。  In this particular the poor are happy; among them;  when a lad comes to his strength; he must take the work that  offers; and can take it with an easy conscience。  But in the  richer classes the question is complicated by the number of  opportunities and a variety of considerations。  Here; then;  this principle of ours comes in helpfully。  The young man has  to seek; not a road to wealth; but an opportunity of service;  not money; but honest work。  If he has some strong  propensity; some calling of nature; some over…weening  interest in any special field of industry; inquiry; or art;  he will do right to obey the impulse; and that for two  reasons: the first external; because there he will render the  best services; the second personal; because a demand of his  own nature is to him without appeal whenever it can be  satisfied with the consent of his other faculties and  appetites。  If he has no such elective taste; by the very  principle on which he chooses any pursuit at all he must  choose the most honest and serviceable; and not the most  highly remunerated。  We have here an external problem; not  from or to ourself; but flowing from the constitution of  society; and we have our own soul with its fixed design of  righteousness。  All that can be done is to present the  problem in proper terms; and leave it to the soul of the  individual。  Now; the problem to the poor is one of  necessity: to earn wherewithal to live; they must find  remunerative labour。  But the problem to the rich is one of  honour: having the wherewithal; they must find serviceable  labour。  Each has to earn his daily bread: the one; because  he has not yet got it to eat; the other; who has already  eaten it; because he has not yet earned it。

Of course; what is true of bread is true of luxuries and  comforts; whether for the body or the mind。  But the  consideration of luxuries leads us to a new aspect of the  whole question; and to a second proposition no less true; and  maybe no less startling; than the last。

At the present day; we; of the easier classes; are in a state  of surfeit and disgrace after meat。  Plethora has filled us  with indifference; and we are covered from head to foot with  the callosities of habitual opulence。  Born into what is  called a certain rank; we live; as the saying is; up to our  station。  We squander without enjoyment; because our fathers  squandered。  We eat of the best; not from delicacy; but from  brazen habit。  We do not keenly enjoy or eagerly desire the  presence of a luxury; we are unaccustomed to its absence。   And not only do we squander money from habit; but still more  pitifully waste it in ostentation。  I can think of no more  melancholy disgrace for a creature who professes either  reason or pleasure for his guide; than to spend the smallest  fraction of his income upon that which he does not desire;  and to keep a carriage in which you do not wish to drive; or  a butler of whom you are afraid; is a pathetic kind of folly。   Money; being a means of happiness; should make both parties  happy when it changes hands; rightly disposed; it should be  twice blessed in its employment; and buyer and seller should  alike have their twenty shillings worth of profit out of  every pound。  Benjamin Franklin went through life an altered  man; because he once paid too dearly for a penny whistle。  My  concern springs usually from a deeper source; to wit; from  having bought a whistle when I did not want one。  I find I  regret this; or would regret it if I gave myself the time;  not only on personal but on moral and philanthropical  considerations。  For; first; in a world where money is  wanting to buy books for eager students and food and medicine  for pining children; and where a large majority are starved  in their most immediate desires; it is surely base; stupid;  and cruel to squander money when I am pushed by no appetite  and enjoy no return of genuine satisfaction。  My philanthropy  is wide enough in scope to include myself; and when I have  made myself happy; I have at least one good argument that I  have acted rightly; but where that is not so; and I have  bought and not enjoyed; my mouth is closed; and I conceive  that I have robbed the poor。  And; second; anything I buy or  use which I do not sincerely want or cannot vividly enjoy;  disturbs the balance of supply and demand; and contributes to  remove industrious hands from the production of what is  useful or pleasurable and to keep them busy upon ropes of  sand and things that are a weariness to the flesh。  That  extravagance is truly sinful; and a very silly sin to boot;  in which we impoverish mankind and ourselves。  It is another  question for each man's heart。  He knows if he can enjoy what  he buys and uses; if he cannot; he is a dog in the manger;  nay; it he cannot; I contend he is a thief; for nothing  really belongs to a man which he cannot use。  Proprietor is  connected with propriety; and that only is the man's which is  proper to his wants and faculties。

A youth; in choosing a career; must not be alarmed by  poverty。  Want is a sore thing; but poverty does not imply  want。  It remains to be seen whether with half his present  income; or a third; he cannot; in the most generous sense;  live as fully as at present。  He is a fool who objects to  luxuries; but he is also a fool who does not protest against  the waste of luxuries on those who do not desire and cannot  enjoy them。  It remains to be seen; by each man who would  live a true life to himself and not a merely specious life to  society; how many luxuries he truly wants and to how many he  merely submits as to a social propriety; and all these last  he will immediately forswear。  Let him do this; and he will  be surprised to find how little money it requires to keep him  in complete contentment and activity of mind and senses。   Life at any level among the easy classes is conceived upon a  principle of rivalry; where each man and each household must  ape the tastes and emulate the display of others。  One is  delicate in eating; another in wine; a third in furniture or  works of art or dress; and I; who care nothing for any of  these refinements; who am perhaps a plain athletic creature  and love exercise; beef; beer; flannel shirts and a camp bed;  am yet called upon to assimilate all these other tastes and  make these foreign occasions of expenditure my own。  It may  be cynical: I am sure I shall be told it is selfish; but I  will spend my money as I please and for my own intimate  personal gratification; and should count myself a nincompoop  indeed to lay out the colour of a halfpenny on any fancied  social decency or duty。  I shall not wear gloves unless my  hands are cold; or unless I am born with a delight in them。   Dress is my own affair; and that of one other in the world;  that; in fact and for an obvious reason; of any woman who  shall chance to be in love with me。  I shall lodge where I  have a mind。  If I do not ask society to live with me; they  must be silent; and even if I do; they have no further right  but to refuse the invitation!  There is a kind of idea abroad  that a man must live up to his station; that his house; his  table; and his toilette; shall be in a ratio of equivalence;  and equally imposing to the world。  If this is in the Bible;  the passage has eluded my inquiries。  If it is not in the  Bible; it is nowhere but in the heart of the fool。  Throw  aside this fancy。  See what you want; and spend upon that;  distinguish what you do not care about; and spend nothing  upon that。  There are not many people who can differentiate  wines above a certain and that not at all a high price。  Are  you sure you are one of these? 

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