dowry; because, as
a rule, rich girls bring with them, not only a fortune, but also more
eagerness, nay, more of the inherited instinct, to preserve it, than
poor girls do. If anyone doubts the truth of this, and thinks that it
is just the opposite, he will find authority for his view in Ariosto's
first Satire; but, on the other hand, Dr. Johnson agrees with my
opinion. _A woman of fortune_, he says, _being used to the handling
of money, spends it judiciously; but a woman who gets the command
of money for the first time upon her marriage, has such a gusto in
spending it, that she throws it away with great profusion_.[1] And in
any case let me advise anyone who marries a poor girl not to leave her
the capital but only the interest, and to take especial care that she
has not the management of the children's fortune.

[Footnote 1: Boswell's Life of Johnson: ann: 1776, aetat: 67.]

I do not by any means think that I am touching upon a subject which is
not worth my while to mention when I recommend people to be careful to
preserve what they have earned or inherited. For to start life with
just as much as will make one independent, that is, allow one to live
comfortably without having to work--even if one has only just enough
for oneself, not to speak of a family--is an advantage which cannot be
over-estimated; for it means exemption and immunity from that chronic
disease of penury, which fastens on the life of man like a plague; it
is emancipation from that forced labor which is the natural lot of
every mortal. Only under a favorable fate like this can a man be said
to be born free, to be, in the proper sense of the word, _sui juris_,
master of his own time and powers, and able to say every morning,
_This day is my own_. And just for the same reason the difference
between the man who has a hundred a year and the man who has a
thousand, is infinitely smaller than the difference between the former
and a man who has nothing at all. But inherited wealth reaches its
utmost value when it falls to the individual endowed with mental
powers of a high order, who is resolved to pursue a line of life not
compatible with the making of money; for he is then doubly endowed by
fate and can live for his genius; and he will pay his debt to mankind
a hundred times, by achieving what no other could achieve, by
producing some work which contributes to the general good, and
redounds to the honor of humanity at large. Another, again, may
use his