. . . Riches encourage and brighten up
such a man just as a sailor is delighted at a favorable wind that bears him on
his way, or as people feel pleasure at a fine day or at a sunny spot in the
cold weather.
What wise man, I mean of our school,
whose only good is virtue, can deny that even these matters which we call
neither good nor bad have in themselves a certain value, and that some of them
are preferable to others? To some of them we show a certain amount of respect,
and to some a great deal. Do not, then, make any mistake: riches belong to the
class of desirable things.
"Why then," you say, "do
you laugh at me, since you place them in the same position that I do?"
Do you wish to know how different the position
is in which we place them? If my riches leave me, they will carry away with
them nothing except themselves. You will be bewildered and will seem to be left
without yourself if they should pass away from you.
With me riches occupy a certain place,
but with you they occupy the highest place of all. In the end, my riches belong
to me, but you belong to your riches.
—Seneca
the Younger, On the happy life,
Chapter 22 (tr Stewart)
We will
indeed find good people who also happen to be wealthy, though we may not
immediately recognize them. We are so used to being impressed with the
appearance of prosperity that we often fail to look to the character beneath. The
money itself isn’t really praiseworthy at all, but what someone may do with it
certainly can be.
I had
the honor of knowing a fellow who had made a massive fortune in business, and
who once offered to write a blank check to a small college that was trying to
recover from years of mismanagement.
There
were certain conditions, however, and they were not negotiable. No, he wasn’t
asking that a building be named after him, or for an honorary degree, or any
tax perks. Instead, he asked that the gift, which could easily have ended up
being in the tens of millions, be completely anonymous, that the top-heavy administration
be cleaned up, that tuition remain low enough for working families to afford,
that faculty and staff receive a fair wage, and that the school stick to its
mission of helping young people learn to think, not just getting them
entry-level jobs.
Each and
every one of those requirements revealed character, because they came from a
commitment to the true purpose of liberal arts learning and a respect for human
dignity. It wasn’t just about giving money, but about using it to encourage
human excellence.
The
college administration refused his offer, and it was easy to see why. They
surely felt that it threatened their own power, and they probably assumed the
donor was interested in the same sort of empire building that they were. What
they failed to see was that not everyone placed wealth in the same position
that they did.
You will
recognize in what sort of esteem a man holds money by looking beyond the
possessions themselves. Remove all the trappings and look at the soul within
him. What does he value, and what is his purpose? Does he rule over his property
with wisdom and fairness, or does his property rule him through vanity and
greed? If you took away all the prosperity, would you find just an empty shell
of man, now completely lost without all his fine playthings, or would you find
a commitment to character that doesn’t ebb and flow with the fickle
circumstances of the world?
I have
known both sorts of people, and I have gradually learned that our own dignity
will rise or fall by whether we give priority to virtue or to possessions.
Wealth that is not in the service of justice will only enslave us.
Written in 9/2014
Image: Marcello Bacciarelli, Allegory of Justice (c. 1792)
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