een played in his behalf which startle the whole social world amid
which they occur, and seldom fail radically to alter the entire moral
constitution of those who are their objects. It appears that about one
hundred years prior to Mr. Ellison's attainment of his majority,
there had died, in a remote province, one Mr. Seabright Ellison. This
gentlemen had amassed a princely fortune, and, having no very immediate
connexions, conceived the whim of suffering his wealth to accumulate
for a century after his decease. Minutely and sagaciously directing the
various modes of investment, he bequeathed the aggregate amount to the
nearest of blood, bearing the name Ellison, who should be alive at the
end of the hundred years. Many futile attempts had been made to set
aside this singular bequest; their ex post facto character rendered them
abortive; but the attention of a jealous government was aroused, and a
decree finally obtained, forbidding all similar accumulations. This act
did not prevent young Ellison, upon his twenty-first birth-day, from
entering into possession, as the heir of his ancestor, Seabright, of a
fortune of four hundred and fifty millions of dollars. {*1}

When it had become definitely known that such was the enormous wealth
inherited, there were, of course, many speculations as to the mode
of its disposal. The gigantic magnitude and the immediately available
nature of the sum, dazzled and bewildered all who thought upon the
topic. The possessor of any appreciable amount of money might have been
imagined to perform any one of a thousand things. With riches merely
surpassing those of any citizen, it would have been easy to suppose him
engaging to supreme excess in the fashionable extravagances of his time;
or busying himself with political intrigues; or aiming at ministerial
power, or purchasing increase of nobility, or devising gorgeous
architectural piles; or collecting large specimens of Virtu; or playing
the munificent patron of Letters and Art; or endowing and bestowing his
name upon extensive institutions of charity. But, for the inconceivable
wealth in the actual possession of the young heir, these objects and
all ordinary objects were felt to be inadequate. Recourse was had to
figures; and figures but sufficed to confound. It was seen, that even at
three per cent, the annual income of the inheritance amounted to no less
than thirteen millions and five hundred thousand dollars; which was
one million and one