Of Riches

Abstract Were we to form Judgments only from outward Appearances, from the general Practice of the World, should we not be indin’d to think Riches the Summum Bonum,the chief, the only Good of Mankind, that without which ‘twere impossible for them to enjoy the Felicity appropriated to their Nature? What else could be a Temptation strong enough to make them sacrifice their Ease, their Quiet, their Health, their Liberty, their Fame, and what ought to be infinitely more dear, their Virtue, their Honour, their Conscience, and all their future Hopes, to their Avarice? What prevalent enough to make them prize a great Estate more than an unspotted Innocence, a glittering Treasure more than a bright Understanding, and the Reputation of being richer than their Neighbours, more than that of being better and more rational? By what can they demonstrate a greater degeneracy of Soul, a higher pitch of Frenzy, The only Use I know Riches are of, is the having it in one’s Power to help the Needy, to do Good to the Indigent. I assure the Reader, were they given to me on condition, I should wholly keep them to my self; I would not accept of a Gift so clog’d: But such a Supposition ought not to be made; ‘tis unfit to imagine so much as a remote possibility of such a Narrowness of Mind in God; in him who is Goodness it self, and gives to all his Creatures with an unbounded Munificence, and whom we cannot in any thing please better, than in imitating the Benignity of his Nature, and in endeavouring to be Bountiful as he is Bountiful; which tho’ we cannot be in effect, yet we may be in desire; we may wish well to all; and those we cannot make Rich, we may by our Advice endeavour to make Easie, Patient and Resign’d; tho’ we cannot give them Gold, yet we may teach them Wisdom, and by inspiring them with a Love of Virtue, Probity, and Truth, put them in possession of the most valuable Treasures, Treasures without which all others would be Curses instead of Blessings, and consequently should deserve to be plac’d among their chiefest Benefactors, as having made them the greatest, the most inestimable Present.