l in its nostrils. Now in our time the
unhealthy man is on top; but he is not the man mad on sex, like Nero; or
mad on statecraft, like Louis XI; he is simply the man mad on money. Our
tyrant is not the satyr or the torturer; but the miser.

The modern miser has changed much from the miser of legend and anecdote;
but only because he has grown yet more insane. The old miser had
some touch of the human artist about him in so far that he collected
gold—a substance that can really be admired for itself, like ivory
or old oak. An old man who picked up yellow pieces had something of the
simple ardour, something of the mystical materialism, of a child who
picks out yellow flowers. Gold is but one kind of coloured clay, but
coloured clay can be very beautiful. The modern idolater of riches is
content with far less genuine things. The glitter of guineas is like
the glitter of buttercups, the chink of pelf is like the chime of bells,
compared with the dreary papers and dead calculations which make the
hobby of the modern miser.

The modern millionaire loves nothing so lovable as a coin. He is content
sometimes with the dead crackle of notes; but far more often with the
mere repetition of noughts in a ledger, all as like each other as eggs
to eggs. And as for comfort, the old miser could be comfortable, as many
tramps and savages are, when he was once used to being unclean. A man
could find some comfort in an unswept attic or an unwashed shirt. But
the Yankee millionaire can find no comfort with five telephones at his
bed-head and ten minutes for his lunch. The round coins in the miser's
stocking were safe in some sense. The round noughts in the millionaire's
ledger are safe in no sense; the same fluctuation which excites him with
their increase depresses him with their diminution. The miser at least
collects coins; his hobby is numismatics. The man who collects noughts
collects nothings.

It may be admitted that the man amassing millions is a bit of an idiot;
but it may be asked in what sense does he rule the modern world. The
answer to this is very important and rather curious. The evil enigma
for us here is not the rich, but the Very Rich. The distinction is
important; because this special problem is separate from the old general
quarrel about rich and poor that runs through the Bible and all strong
books, old and new. The special problem to-day is that certain powers
and privileges have grown so world-wide and unwieldy