CHAPTER II.

FORTUNE, INDEPENDENCE, AND COMPETENCE.

To catch Dame Fortune's golden smile
Assiduous wait upon her,
And gather gear by every wile
That's justify'd by Honor;
Not for to hide it in a hedge,
Nor for a train attendant;
But for the glorious privilege
Of being independent.

BURNS.

Let your first efforts be, not for wealth, but independence. Whatever be your talents, whatever your prospects, never be tempted to speculate away, on the chance of a palace, what you may need as a provision against the workhouse.

BULWER.

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words,-health, peace, and competence.

POPE.

HE answer to the question, What is a fortune? has never been, and probably never will be, satisfactorily made. What may be a fortune for one bears but small proportion to the colossal possessions of another. The scores or hundreds of thousands admired and envied as a fortune in most of our communities look pitifully small beside the two hundred and fifty mil

lions of Vanderbilt. What is a comparative fortune for a laboring man, accustomed to the society of his peers, and only spending what that grade of life requires, does not compel the use of as much money to fill his necessities, or even his desires, as for the merchant of liberal education, of extended acquaintance among the refined and cultivated, demanding expenditures commensurate with such a walk in life. The two persons are on entirely distinct bases of necessary wants, live in two distinct worlds, and are laboring in differently extended spheres. A similar remark is true of every grade or degree in life; nor is there an exception, from the scullion to the king. This is the machinery of society; and right or wrong, so we find it, and so we must treat it.

The fortune is only to be measured by that condition where the possessor is satisfied with the supply of a given number and description of wants. Should the man be content with the things that the interest of five thousand dollars would command, then that sum is his independence, and his fortune as well. But if his independence of charity requires just this sum, and he is unhappy because he has not the means of gratifying other and more expensive desires, he might keep out of the poor-house or swing clear of public or private charity, but he would not possess a fortune. An independence may be measurably fixed in amount, but a fortune is the child of the rich man's imagination. It may be rated much or little,

comparatively, in proportion to the satisfaction of his desires.

Each grade of business has generally its relative share of income and relative proportion of expenses not altogether from the necessities attaching to the business itself, but from the supposed necessities attaching to the position and wants of the persons conducting it. Generally, then, what is a fortune in one business is but a small fraction of one in another. The question, then, is with every person to decide to what rank in life he will aspire, in order that he may settle the amount of the fortune he will aim to win in his business. Few may be able to make a mark and abide closely by it; but individual imperfections do not affect a sound principle.

The closest definition that can be given to this indefinable term fortune is that it is the halo of a mysterious sum which ever recedes, increasing as we approach. Few have expressed themselves fully satisfied with the means they have acquired, however large their property or ample others may consider their fortune.

It is a quite universal ambition to acquire a fortune by those who have intelligence to understand or experience to know the pleasures supposed to be guaranteed by its possession. Peculiar qualities of the human mind are brought into action in the pursuit and possession of wealth; and it brings to men various satisfactions. The mere acquisition of money is to some a substantial, realized pleasure; while to others