explores cautiously, ventures at
first a little, and increases the venture with the ratio of experience. A
speculator looks out upon the new region, as upon a far-away landscape,
whose features are softened to beauty by distance; upon a _hope_, he
stakes that, which, if it wins, will make him; and if it loses, will ruin
him. When the alternatives are victory, or utter destruction, a battle
may, sometimes, still be necessary. But commerce has no such alternatives;
only speculation proceeds upon them.

If the capital is borrowed, it is as dishonest, upon such ventures, to
risk, as to lose it. Should a man borrow a noble steed and ride among
incitements which he knew would rouse up his fiery spirit to an
uncontrollable height, and borne away with wild speed, be plunged over a
precipice, his destruction might excite our pity, but could not alter our
opinion of his dishonesty. He borrowed property, and endangered it where
he knew that it would be uncontrollable.

If the capital be one's own, it can scarcely be risked and lost, without
the ruin of other men. No man could blow up his store in a compact street,
and destroy only his own. Men of business are, like threads of a fabric,
woven together, and subject, to a great extent, to a common fate of
prosperity or adversity. I have no right to cut off my hand; I defraud
myself, my family, the community, and God; for all these have an interest
in that hand. Neither has a man the right to throw away his property. He
defrauds himself, his family, the community in which he dwells; for all
these have an interest in that property. If waste is dishonesty, then
every risk, in proportion as it approaches it, is dishonest. To venture,
without that foresight which experience gives, is wrong; and if we cannot
foresee, then we must not venture.

Scheming speculation demoralizes honesty, and almost necessitates
dishonesty. He who puts his own interests to rash ventures, will scarcely
do better for others. The Speculator regards the weightiest affair as only
a splendid game. Indeed, a Speculator on the exchange, and a Gambler at
his table, follow one vocation, only with different instruments. One
employs cards or dice, the other property. The one can no more foresee the
result of his schemes, than the other what spots will come up on his
dice; the calculations of both are only the chances of luck. Both burn
with unhealthy excitement; both are avaricious of gains, but careless of
what they wi