The power of
money is so hard to realise; one who has never had it marvels at
the completeness with which it transforms every detail of life.
Compare what we call our home with that of rich people; it moves
one to scornful laughter. I have no sympathy with the stoical
point of view; between wealth and poverty is just the difference
between the whole man and the maimed. If my lower limbs are
paralysed I may still be able to think, but then there is such a
thing in life as walking. As a poor devil I may live nobly; but
one happens to be made with faculties of enjoyment, and those
have to fall into atrophy. To be sure, most rich people don't
understand their happiness; if they did, they would move and talk
like gods--which indeed they are.'
Amy's brow was shadowed. A wise man, in Reardon's position, would
not have chosen this subject to dilate upon.
'The difference,' he went on, 'between the man with money and the
man without is simply this: the one thinks, "How shall I use my
life?" and the other, "How shall I keep myself alive?" A
physiologist ought to be able to discover some curious
distinction between the brain of a person who has never given a
thought to the means of subsistence, and that of one who has
never known a day free from such cares.
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