le. Busts of Shakespeare, Cervantes,
Dante, Schiller, and other literary men, adorned the room.

In returning thanks for his health, Salamanca referred to his university
experience, and to his labours in connection with the press. "Then," he
went on to say, "the love of gold took possession of my soul, and it was
at Madrid that I found the object of my adoration; but not, alas!
without the loss of my juvenile illusions. Believe me, gentlemen, the
man who can satisfy all his wishes has no more enjoyment. Keep to the
course you have entered on, I advise you. Rothschild's celebrity will
expire on the day of his death. Immortality can be earned, not bought.
Here are before us the effigies of men who have gloriously cultivated
liberal arts; their busts I have met with in every part of Europe; but
nowhere have I found a statue erected to the honour of a man who has
devoted his life to making money."

Riches and happiness have no necessary connection with each other. In
some cases it might be said that happiness is in the inverse proportion
to riches. The happiest part of most men's lives is while they are
battling with poverty, and gradually raising themselves above it. It is
then that they deny themselves for the sake of others,--that they save
from their earnings to secure a future independence,--that they
cultivate their minds while labouring for their daily bread,--that they
endeavour to render themselves wiser and better--happier in their homes
and more useful to society at large. William Chambers, the Edinburgh
publisher, speaking of the labours of his early years, says, "I look
back to those times with great pleasure, and I am almost sorry that I
have not to go through the same experience again; for I reaped more
pleasure when I had not a sixpence in my pocket, studying in a garret in
Edinburgh, than I now find when sitting amidst all the elegancies and
comforts of a parlour."

There are compensations in every condition of life. The difference in
the lot of the rich and the poor is not so great as is generally
imagined. The rich man has often to pay a heavy price for his
privileges. He is anxious about his possessions. He may be the victim of
extortion. He is apt to be cheated. He is the mark for every man's
shaft. He is surrounded by a host of clients, till his purse bleeds at
every pore. As they say in Yorkshire when people become rich, the money
soon "broddles through." Or, if engaged in speculation, the rich man'