p. 158 | WHAT IS WEALTH? by I. F. Mayo

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 9, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 10.

WHAT IS WEALTH?

By I. F. Mayo

WEALTH does not consist of possession of any kind. Take an illustration: A man is wrecked on a desert island; the ship runs aground, and he finds himself the owner of bags of bullion and precious stones, of rare books and rich fabrics. But he can get no fresh water. Presently he dies of thirst—a poorer man than the beggar who wins a humble meal by sweeping a doorstep or weeding a garden. Indeed there is no poverty so terrible as the possession of everything except what we want. The Persian poet Sádí has a story on this point. He says:—

“I saw an Arab sitting in a circle of jewellers of Básráh, and relating as follows: ‘Once on a time, having missed my way in the desert and having no provisions left, I gave myself up for lost, when I happened to find a bag full of pearls. I shall never forget the relish and delight that I felt on supposing it to be fried wheat, nor the bitterness and despair which I suffered on discovering that the bag contained pearls.’”

Still less does wealth consist in mere accumulation; we really do not have what we do not use. A miser had a store of buried gold, over which he used secretly to gloat. A thief stole it away, and a wise man strove to comfort the miser by persuading him to bury some oyster shells in its place, and to visit them and chuckle over them, as he had done over the gold.

Now let us turn to what wealth is in the higher sense. Wealth is the satisfaction of those needs of human life which, if unsatisfied, check its harmonious development. No man can be wealthy till he finds out the limits of his needs, for “Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.” So we cannot find out what wealth is till we find out what these needs are.

Our bodily needs are pure air, good water, sunshine, wholesome food, sufficient clothing and shelter, labor and rest. Our mental needs are the education of our senses, some leisure and some intellectual nourishment, either from books or society. Our spiritual needs are love and duty.—I. F. Mayo.