if mankind thus acted and suffered during all these
generations, they hoped some benefit, some ease, some wellbeing, for
themselves and their descendants; that if they supported law and order,
it was to secure fair-play for all; that if they denied themselves in
the present, they must have had some designs on the future. Now a
great hereditary fortune is a miracle of man's wisdom and mankind's
forbearance; it has not only been amassed and handed down, it has been
suffered to be amassed and handed down; and surely in such consideration
as this, its possessor should find only a new spur to activity and
honour, that with all this power of service he should not prove
unserviceable, and that this mass of treasure should return in benefits
upon the race. If he had twenty, or thirty, or a hundred thousand at his
banker's, or if all Yorkshire or all California were his to manage or to
sell, he would still be morally penniless, and have the world to begin
like Whittington, until he had found some way of serving mankind. His
wage is physically in his own hand; but, in honour, that wage must still
be earned. He is only steward on parole of what is called his fortune.
He must honourably perform his stewardship. He must estimate his own
services and allow himself a salary in proportion, for that will be
one among his functions. And while he will then be free to spend that
salary, great or little, on his own private pleasures, the rest of his
fortune he but holds and disposes under trust for mankind; it is
not his, because he has not earned it; it cannot be his, because
his services have already been paid; but year by year it is his to
distribute, whether to help individuals whose birthright and outfit has
been swallowed up in his, or to further public works and institutions.

*****

'Tis a fine thing to smart for one's duty; even in the pangs of it there
is contentment.

*****

We all suffer ourselves to be too much concerned about a little poverty;
but such considerations should not move us in the choice of that which
is to be the business and justification of so great a portion of our
lives and like the missionary, the patriot, or the philosopher, we
should all choose that poor and brave career in which we can do the most
and best for mankind.

*****

The salary in any business under heaven is not the only, nor indeed the
first, question. That you should continue to exist is a matter for your
own consideration; but that yo