o the level of the tool or exalts the tool to the
height of its maker.

CHAPTER XXI.

WEALTH DECAYS.

All man-made wealth is subject to inevitable decay. Aristotle said,
"Labor produces all wealth," but the product has no sooner left the
laborer's hands than it begins to perish. The vital energy that
produced it must follow to preserve it from the ravages of time.

Take the life, the vital part, from the body, and corruption begins.
So with all that has been produced, withdraw the vital force and ruin
immediately follows. The vital energy must ever be present and active
to preserve it.

Fruits and grains and provisions of all kinds for human food rapidly
perish. The laborer must be continually active, producing and
preserving, or the race would be starving in a fortnight. Even the
miraculously bestowed manna became corrupt in a night. It had to be
gathered day by day.

Flocks and herds need the shepherd's care. They are subject to disease
and natural enemies and are short lived, so that however large and
strong, and healthy the herd of cattle, or the flock of sheep, it
would be soon scattered and lost to the owner without watchful care.

Tools and instruments of production, great or small, if used, soon
need to be renewed, or if unused perish even sooner. Neglected they
speedily decay. The locomotive left unattended on the track would soon
be utterly useless from the destructive elements of rain and heat,
frosts and sunshine.

The palace, that floats on the ocean, would be a prey to barnacles, to
winds and waves, to shoals and rocks, and would soon disappear,
without the constant hand of intelligent vital energy to direct and
preserve it. Houses untenanted and uncared for soon decay. Leaks
unstopped, broken windows unrepaired, and vermin unrestrained, soon
make them unfit for habitation. Farms and plantations go back speedily
to weeds and wilderness when uncultivated. Great cities like Babylon
and Nineveh are soon so covered with dust that we have to dig to find
their ruins.

Decay is written over every form of man-made wealth. There is needed
constantly the touch of the laborer for its preservation.

Gold, silver and precious stones are the least subject to decay. They
are not, however, made, but found, and simply refined and polished.
The indestructibility of silver and gold have made them the money
metals of the world, quite as much as their rarity, their beauty and
malleability. In them wealth