et gone in collecting, but if there is any
young man with an ambition to render a larger service to the world,
I will raise it another notch, if necessary, to encourage him. So
almost limitless are the possibilities of service in this age that I
am not willing to fix a maximum to the sum a man can honestly and
legitimately earn.

Not only do I believe that a man can earn five hundred million, but I
believe that men have earned it. I believe that Thomas Jefferson
earned more than five hundred million. The service that he rendered
to the world was of such great value that had he collected for it
five hundred million of dollars, he would not have been overpaid. I
believe that Abraham Lincoln earned more than five hundred million,
and I could go back through history and give you the name of man after
man who rendered a service so large as to entitle him to collect more
than five hundred million from society, but if I presented a list
containing the name of every man who, since time began, earned such
an enormous sum, one thing would be true of all of them, namely: that
in not a single case did the man collect the full amount. The men who
have earned five hundred million dollars have been so busy earning it
that they have not had time to collect it; and the men who have
collected five hundred million have been so busy collecting it that
they have not had time to earn it.

Jefferson did not collect all he earned; in fact, he began public
life well-to-do for a man of that period, and died poor--impoverished
by visits of those who called to tell him how much they loved him and
how much they appreciated his work. Lincoln did not collect the full
amount; neither Jefferson nor Lincoln would have cared to collect
five hundred million. What would either one have done with such a
sum? Or, what is more important, what would five hundred million of
dollars have done with Jefferson or Lincoln?

In that wonderful parable of the sower, Christ speaks of the seeds that
fell and of the thorns that sprang up and choked them, and He himself
explained what he meant by this illustration, namely: That the cares of
this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the truth. If the great
benefactors of the race had been burdened with the care of big fortunes,
they could not have devoted themselves to the nobler things that gave
them a place in the affection of their people and in history.

It seems, therefore, that while one can not rightfully