e little to do with either the making
or accumulating of money. This depends mainly, like all other
activities, on the strength or weakness of the instincts involved. One's
brain capacity cannot be measured by his bank account, any more than by
the strength of his body or the color of his hair. His bank account
simply shows his innate tendencies. There is no doubt that brain
capacity as well as physical perfection adds to power, but it is the
instinct that determines the tendency and strength of the activity.

To say that the one who gets money the most easily and keeps it the most
safely has the best brain is no more reasonable than to say that the
foxhound is more intelligent than the bull-dog because it can run
faster. Nature formed one for running and the other for holding on. The
brain power is not involved.

There are manifold ways of gratifying all these instincts. The desire
for property calls simply for getting it and keeping it. It does not
involve the method to be used. The way is determined by other faculties,
by education, by opportunities, by the strength and weakness of
inhibitions. It does not follow that all legal ways are morally right
and all illegal ones morally wrong. Society in its development has
established certain ways in which it may be done. These ways are easy
for some, they are hard for others, and for many quite impossible.

Still the instinct for getting is always present, leading and urging to
acquire and to keep. Endless are the ways that men have contrived to
gratify this instinct. If, perchance, a law stands in the way, means are
always sought to get around the law. Every desire is always seeking its
own gratification or satisfaction. This means life. Most men believe
that the way they adopt for getting money or gratifying other instincts
is really no worse than some other person's way. The man who uses the
confidence game contends with great assurance that his methods are like
other business methods; that all men are using every means to get the
largest return for the least effort, and one way is no better than
another. A considerable portion of society has always supported him in
these ideas. The law is full of shadowy lines which divide legal
acquisition from the illegal, some of which are so fine that no one can
see more than a technical difference. For instance, under an indictment
for obtaining money by false pretenses, one may make all sorts of
statements as to the quality, va