Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/342

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( 114. )

¬the whole character of his mind and temper. — How often do we see the most opulent, either im- providently wasting their fortunes, or sacrificing every satisfaction to increase them ! and even in the absence of such insane propensities, how frequently do we find them entangled through- out their whole lives by senseless fashions and opinions, unconnected with either happiness or virtue, and dropping at last into their graves, weighed down by accumulated wealth, without having either enjoyed it themselves or adminis- tered it to the support of others ! — Of all this he is the very reverse; though most intelligent in every branch of business, and most carefully precise in all its multiplied concerns, he is so entirely removed from all thought of them when with his family and his friends, that you could not possibly discover he had ever spent an hour in such pursuits, and his vast fortune rolls on more rapidly, whilst he is spreading it abroad with a liberal hand for all the uses which make its possession a blessing and a trust." It brought to my mind the true but singular saying of ¬Solomon — ¬