Ambition often takes the form of a love of money. There are many who have never attempted art or music, poetry or science; but most people do something for a livelihood, and consequently an increase of income is not only acceptable in itself, but gives a pleasant feeling of success.

Doubt is often expressed whether wealth is of any advantage. I do not myself believe that those who are born, as the saying is, with a silver spoon in their mouth, are necessarily any the happier for it. There is no doubt wealth entails almost more labor than poverty, and certainly more anxiety. Still it must, I think, be confessed that the possession of an income, whatever it may be, which increases somewhat as the years roll on, does add to the comfort of life.

Unquestionably the possession of wealth is by no means unattended by some drawbacks. Money and the love of money often go together. The poor man, as Ralph Waldo Emerson says, is the man who wishes to be rich; and the more a man has, the more he often longs to be richer. Just as drinking often does but increase thirst; so in many cases the craving for riches does grow with wealth.

This is, of course, especially the case when money is sought for its own sake. Moreover, it is often easier to make money than to keep or to enjoy it. Keeping it is dull and anxious drudgery. The dread of loss may hang like a dark cloud over life. Wealth is certainly no sinecure. Moreover, the value of money depends partly, on knowing what to do with it, partly on the manner in which it is acquired.

The real truth I take to be that wealth is not necessarily an advantage, but that whether it is so or not depends on the use we make of it. The same, however, might be said of most other opportunities and privileges; knowledge and strength, beauty and skill, may all be abused; if we neglect or misuse them we are worse off than if we had never had them in the first place. Wealth is only a disadvantage in the hands of those who do not know how to use it. It gives the command of so many other things for example leisure, the power of helping friends, family, books, great works of art, opportunities to expand our world by the means of travel.

It would, however, be easy to exaggerate the advantages of money. It is well worth having, and worth working for, but it does not requite too great a sacrifice; not indeed so great as is often offered up to it. A wise proverb tells us that gold may be bought too dear. If wealth is to be valued because it gives time freedom, clearly it would be a mistake to sacrifice time freedom in the struggle for wealth. Money has no doubt also a tendency to make men poor in spirit. But, on the other hand, is there a gift that we know of which is without danger?

If life and time freedom have been sacrificed by chasing after the dollar for its own sake, the very means by which it was acquired will prevent its being enjoyed and put to good use. The chill of poverty will be only too real and be felt down deep into the bone. The term miser was chosen for this type of person; who are essentially miserable.

If we take a close look and examine our lives, can we happily acknowledge that we are really richer than we think?