Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/559

 MOOT POINTS IN SOCIOLOGY 541

head of the fool," it is prized as the means of winning the coveted mate. When entertainment is expensive, money is sought to oil the wheels of social intercourse. When the gods respect persons, men will seek the wherewithal for costly sacri- fices and sanctuaries. When wealth gives lordship, the ambi- tious will rowel hard in the pursuit of fortune. When the artist works for the highest bidder, the beauty-lover will set himself to money-making. Whenever Dives enjoys greater social con- sideration, stands higher with the Unseen, is a more formidable suitor, finds bigger meshes in the law, and counts as a worthier person than the better man with the lighter purse, all the streams of desire pour into one channel, and avarice swells to monstrous proportions.

In general, the itch for wealth varies directly with its capacity to promote the satisfaction of the various desires. Since this capacity varies from place to place and from age to age, the value of wealth is subject to rise and fall.

The assertion that wealth in general is liable to appreciate or depreciate seems a hard saying. Have we not been taught there can be no general rise or fall in exchange values ? Against what, indeed, shall wealth be measured ? Where are the mar- kets which register its fluctuations ?

But such markets exist, always have existed. Are there not streets where woman's virtue is sold ? Are there not common- wealths where there is a ruling price for votes ? Do not the comparative rewards of occupations indicate what inducements will overcome the love of independence, of safety, of good repute? We see men sacrificing health, or leisure, or family life, or offspring, or friends, or liberty, or honor, or truth, for gain. The volume of such spiritual goods Mammon can lure into the market measures the power of money. By the choices men make in such cases and by the judgment others pass upon such choices we can ascertain what is the social estimate of wealth. When gold cannot shake the nobleman's pride of caste, the statesman's patriotism, the soldier's honor, the wife's fidelity, the official's sense of duty, or the artist's devotion to his ideal, wealth is cheap. But when maidens yield themselves to senile