Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/39

Rh on hand. Thus his wealth diminishes as rapidly as it had accumulated, and, in the course of one or two years, the rich man is poor. Still, the instances in which men retain their wealth throughout life are not rare. Many large fortunes are divided among children at the death of their parents. But the instances are rare, indeed, in which these children retain the wealth they have inherited longer than a few years.”

“Can this be really so?” inquired the daughter, with much surprise.

“It is a truth known to all who have lived long enough to make any observations on the state of society around them,” replied the father. “It is only a few days since I noticed this remark in one of the newspapers, founded upon the very fact to which I have just alluded—‘Nothing, after all, is the best legacy a man can leave his children in this country.’”

“Why nothing, father?”

“Because a man with nothing feels the necessity of exertion, and wealth is the result of intelligent, unremitting exertion. But a young man who inherits wealth does not feel this necessity. He rarely makes a sagacious, enterprising, business man, and is almost sure to lose all he has in a very few years. Usually, such a one