The question may be asked,—­Is it possible for a man working for small wages to save anything, and lay it by in a savings bank, when he requires every penny for the maintenance of his family?  But the fact remains, that it is done by many industrious and sober men; that they do deny themselves, and put their spare earnings into savings banks, and the other receptacles provided for poor men’s savings.  And if some can do this, all may do it under similar circumstances,—­without depriving themselves of any genuine pleasure, or any real enjoyment.

How intensely selfish is it for a person in the receipt of good pay to spend everything upon himself,—­or, if he has a family, to spend his whole earnings from week to week, and lay nothing by.  When we hear that a man, who has been in the receipt of a good salary, has died and left nothing behind him—­that he has left his wife and family destitute—­left them to chance—­to live or perish anywhere,—­we cannot but regard it as the most selfish thriftlessness.  And yet, comparatively little is thought of such cases.  Perhaps the hat goes round.  Subscriptions may produce something—­perhaps nothing; and the ruined remnants of the unhappy family sink into poverty and destitution.

Yet the merest prudence would, to a great extent, have obviated this result.  The curtailment of any sensual and selfish enjoyment—­of a glass of beer or a screw of tobacco—­would enable a man, in the course of years, to save at least something for others, instead of wasting it on himself.  It is, in fact, the absolute duty of the poorest man to provide, in however slight a degree, for the support of himself and his family in the season of sickness and helplessness which often comes upon men when they least expect such a visitation.

Comparatively few people can be rich; but most have it in their power to acquire, by industry and economy, sufficient to meet their personal wants.  They may even become the possessors of savings sufficient to secure them against penury and poverty in their old age.  It is not, however, the want of opportunity, but the want of will, that stands in the way of economy.  Men may labour unceasingly with hand or head; but they cannot abstain from spending too freely, and living too highly.

The majority prefer the enjoyment of pleasure to the practice of self-denial.  With the mass of men, the animal is paramount.  They often spend all that they earn.  But it is not merely the working people who are spendthrifts.  We hear of men who for years have been earning and spending hundreds a year, who suddenly die,—­leaving their children penniless.  Everybody knows of such cases.  At their death, the very furniture of the house they have lived in belongs to others.  It is sold to pay their funeral expenses and debts which they have incurred during their thriftless lifetime.

Money represents a multitude of objects without value, or without real utility; but it also represents something much more precious,—­and that is independence.  In this light it is of great moral importance.