If he has made learning or fame his chief aim, he probably has not the money to buy soul-insurance.  He takes refuge in agnosticism, like an ostrich in a bush.  His agnosticism is in his will; he does not wish to see.  Or its cause is atrophy, through disuse, of moral vision.  He cannot see.  There are agnostics of quite another stamp, whom we must respect and honor for their sterling honesty and high character, though we may have little respect for their philosophical tenets.  But how much has our scholar advanced the morality of the community?  He has probably done even more harm than the business man, who is a mere “covetous machine.”

The “practical” man has reversed the sequence of functions.  Character is, and must be, first; and wealth, learning, power, and fame are the materials, often exceedingly refractory, which it must subjugate to its growth and use.  And this subjugation is anything but easy.  The reversal of the sequence results in a moral degradation and poverty indefinitely more dangerous to the community than the slums of our great cities.  For these may be controlled and cleansed; but the moral slum floods our legislatures and positions of honor and trust, and invades the churches.  The mental and moral water-supply of the community is loaded with disease-germs.

The social wealth of a community is the sum total of the wealth of its individual members.  And a community is truly wealthy only when this wealth is, to a certain extent, diffused.  If there is any truth in our argument that the sequence of functions culminates in righteousness and unselfishness, the real social wealth of a community consists in its moral character, not in its money, or even in its intelligence.  We may rest assured that character, resulting in industry and economy, will bring sufficient means of subsistence, so that all its members will be fed and housed and clothed.  And art and culture, of the most ennobling and inspiring sort, will surely follow.  And even if such literature failed as largely composes our present fin-de-siecle garbage-heap, we would not regret its absence.  That community will and must survive in which the largest proportion of members make the accumulation of character their chief and first aim.  And to this community every rival must in time yield its place and power, and all its acquisitions.  And in every advancing community the position of any class or profession will in time be determined by its moral wealth.

But this moral wealth is intangible.  The rewards and penalties of moral law easily escape notice in our hasty and superficial study of life.  The God immanent in our environment often seems to hide himself.  The altar of Jehovah is fallen down, and Baal’s temples are crowded with loud-mouthed worshippers.  The bribes of present enjoyment and of immediate success loom up before us, and we doubt if any other success is possible.