Tempo:
64 INTERIOR VISION.
when, with whatever assurance thou reliest upon it, it may not spot for thee, as gold nails, thy final melancholy, and, for thy body, long-lasting house? Hoarder for that day of enjoyment which shall never come to thee, in thy last earthly house, all thy tenfold fences of precious metal useless, art thou content to put-up with most ignoble lead! Thou leavest all thy wealth, all ‘thy goods and chattels,’ and, for aught thou knowest, thou forfeitest thy very soul; and at that, perhaps, terribly sudden summons, thou stand’st not even solitary! For is there not thy misspent life thee to confront? Thou hast bargained away thine heritage, and hast spent the price. And, now, as that as which to be it hath been thy greatest boast —a good ‘man of business’ — thou must, in rendering up thyself, perform thine own half of the obligations. If the real law be that life to come be alone purchasable by good deeds —as any Jawyer will tell thee, friend, if thou consultest him—thou hast miscalculated the law. In thine own interest’s sake, then, better a single virtuous act than a reiteration of money victories! Better, for thee, the prayer of the poor mau, and the blessings of the fatherless and of the widow, than a whole shipload of plate, an avenue of bowing menials, and a whole court of flatterers! Remember that the reckoning, with thee, must come. Disencumber yourself in time. Perhaps the very ‘conveyances of thy lands’ may not be contained in that box, in which there will be found, at last, but too much room for the possessor himself!
“Art thou wise — even in this world’s sense? Art thou sagacious as to the relative meanings of ‘debtor and creditor’? When all the world attesteth that these things which I have written concerning inner worlds and the methods of admission thereto, are true, shalé thou, then, persevere in so hopeless a chase of phantoms —of fine false things which flee from thee? Shalt thou, with this knowledge, strain for an imagined good, which, even in thine own hand, melteth? Shalt thou, with all these results which experience avoucheth as imminent, still sleep the sleep of fools? Still, with no alarm, fold the accustomed hands, and acquiesce because we see all the world doing so likewise? Shalt thou waste thy precious hours in the pursuit of those anticipated fine things, which, for all thy knowledge to the contrary, are to prove as daggers to thee? If missing zhee, perhaps to prove nets to the feet to trip up, or pits of selfishness, or of mistake, into which they shall fall, to those to whom thou leavest thine accumulation! That for which thou canst have no farther use, keep it as tenaciously as thou mightest want! Those that thou fanciest best beloved, may but inherit direct ruin in heiring thy riches. That which might have been as a gold mosaic pavement for thee to walk over in thy lifetime, may, in the sinking under thee in thy final disappearance out of this slippery world, convert as into a devil-trap to thy children!
‘Love not money, then, other than ‘wisely;’ and not ‘too well.’ Grow back into the simplicity of thy childhood. Time hastens from thee.
when, with whatever assurance thou reliest upon it, it may not spot for thee, as gold nails, thy final melancholy, and, for thy body, long-lasting house? Hoarder for that day of enjoyment which shall never come to thee, in thy last earthly house, all thy tenfold fences of precious metal useless, art thou content to put-up with most ignoble lead! Thou leavest all thy wealth, all ‘thy goods and chattels,’ and, for aught thou knowest, thou forfeitest thy very soul; and at that, perhaps, terribly sudden summons, thou stand’st not even solitary! For is there not thy misspent life thee to confront? Thou hast bargained away thine heritage, and hast spent the price. And, now, as that as which to be it hath been thy greatest boast —a good ‘man of business’ — thou must, in rendering up thyself, perform thine own half of the obligations. If the real law be that life to come be alone purchasable by good deeds —as any Jawyer will tell thee, friend, if thou consultest him—thou hast miscalculated the law. In thine own interest’s sake, then, better a single virtuous act than a reiteration of money victories! Better, for thee, the prayer of the poor mau, and the blessings of the fatherless and of the widow, than a whole shipload of plate, an avenue of bowing menials, and a whole court of flatterers! Remember that the reckoning, with thee, must come. Disencumber yourself in time. Perhaps the very ‘conveyances of thy lands’ may not be contained in that box, in which there will be found, at last, but too much room for the possessor himself!
“Art thou wise — even in this world’s sense? Art thou sagacious as to the relative meanings of ‘debtor and creditor’? When all the world attesteth that these things which I have written concerning inner worlds and the methods of admission thereto, are true, shalé thou, then, persevere in so hopeless a chase of phantoms —of fine false things which flee from thee? Shalt thou, with this knowledge, strain for an imagined good, which, even in thine own hand, melteth? Shalt thou, with all these results which experience avoucheth as imminent, still sleep the sleep of fools? Still, with no alarm, fold the accustomed hands, and acquiesce because we see all the world doing so likewise? Shalt thou waste thy precious hours in the pursuit of those anticipated fine things, which, for all thy knowledge to the contrary, are to prove as daggers to thee? If missing zhee, perhaps to prove nets to the feet to trip up, or pits of selfishness, or of mistake, into which they shall fall, to those to whom thou leavest thine accumulation! That for which thou canst have no farther use, keep it as tenaciously as thou mightest want! Those that thou fanciest best beloved, may but inherit direct ruin in heiring thy riches. That which might have been as a gold mosaic pavement for thee to walk over in thy lifetime, may, in the sinking under thee in thy final disappearance out of this slippery world, convert as into a devil-trap to thy children!
‘Love not money, then, other than ‘wisely;’ and not ‘too well.’ Grow back into the simplicity of thy childhood. Time hastens from thee.
©
2026
Lehal.net