Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/18

 and developer of great industrial enterprises, without becoming convinced that the incitement to many of his colossal operations was quite as much a love for intellectual occupation as for money. Human nature is generally set down as a universal possession, and Mr. Gould was yet a young man when the scope of his financial operations was such as to give clear evidence that the material things of this world were abundantly cared for in his possessions. He had, of course, the instincts of a born speculator, yet his was not the disposition to let results depend simply on the accidental fall of the dice, or the turn of a card. He loved hazard, but he loved better to compel chance to enter the channels he had dug for it. It would be folly to deny the vast value of his work in the development of the Western and Southwestern States, but perhaps as great a folly to attribute a philanthropic or patriotic motive to it.

In a history of the life of such a man as Jay Gould, it is well that certain of his personal characteristics and certain of the chief events of his career be summarized before a complete study of his biography and character is made. It is thus possible better to understand both events and personal qualities.

The education which Jay Gould acquired through his own energies as a youth, found its best application in this work of development. In his purely speculative adventures he was aided by a disposition whose traits, as has already been intimated, were formed in his youth or early manhood. It is impossible to contemplate without astonishment and even