Saladin the Great conquered Syria, Arabia, Persia, and Mesopotamia.  He was the greatest warrior and conqueror of his time.  His power and wealth were enormous.  Yet he was fully persuaded of the utter hollowness of riches.  He ordered, by his will, that considerable sums should be distributed to Mussulmans, Jews, and Christians, in order that the priests of the three religions might implore for him the mercy of God.  He commanded that the shirt or tunic which he wore at the time of his death should be carried on the end of a spear throughout the whole camp and at the head of his army, and that the soldier who bore it should pause at intervals and say aloud, “Behold all that remains of the Emperor Saladin!—­of all the states he had conquered; of all the provinces he had subdued; of the boundless treasures he had amassed; of the countless wealth he possessed, he retained, in dying, nothing but this shroud!”

Don Jose de Salamanca, the great railway contractor of Spain, was, in the early part of his life, a student at the University of Granada.  He there wore, as he himself says, the oldest and most worn of cassocks.  He was a diligent student; and after leaving college he became a member of the Spanish press.  From thence he was translated to the Cabinet of Queen Christina, of which he became Finance Minister.  This brought out his commercial capacities, and induced him to enter on commercial speculations.  He constructed railways in Spain and Italy, and took the principal share in establishing several steam-shipping companies.  But while pursuing commerce, he did not forget literature.  Once a week he kept an open table, to which the foremost men in literature and the press were invited.  They returned his hospitality by inviting him to a dinner on the most economic scale.  Busts of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dante, Schiller, and other literary men, adorned the room.

In returning thanks for his health, Salamanca referred to his university experience, and to his labours in connection with the press.  “Then,” he went on to say, “the love of gold took possession of my soul, and it was at Madrid that I found the object of my adoration; but not, alas! without the loss of my juvenile illusions.  Believe me, gentlemen, the man who can satisfy all his wishes has no more enjoyment.  Keep to the course you have entered on, I advise you.  Rothschild’s celebrity will expire on the day of his death.  Immortality can be earned, not bought.  Here are before us the effigies of men who have gloriously cultivated liberal arts; their busts I have met with in every part of Europe; but nowhere have I found a statue erected to the honour of a man who has devoted his life to making money.”