Mondor and his brother Aristus, after dividing the parental inheritance, have each an income of 50,000 francs.  Mondor practises the fashionable philanthropy.  He is what is called a squanderer of money.  He renews his furniture several times a year; changes his equipages every month.  People talk of his ingenious contrivances to bring them sooner to an end:  in short, he surpasses the fast livers of Balzac and Alexander Dumas.

Thus everybody is singing his praises.  It is, “Tell us about Mondor!  Mondor for ever!  He is the benefactor of the workman; a blessing to the people.  It is true, he revels in dissipation; he splashes the passers-by; his own dignity and that of human nature are lowered a little; but what of that?  He does good with his fortune, if not with himself.  He causes money to circulate; he always sends the tradespeople away satisfied.  Is not money made round that it may roll?”

Aristus has adopted a very different plan of life.  If he is not an egotist, he is, at any rate, an individualist, for he considers expense, seeks only moderate and reasonable enjoyments, thinks of his children’s prospects, and, in fact, he economises.

And what do people say of him?  “What is the good of a rich fellow like him?  He is a skinflint.  There is something imposing, perhaps, in the simplicity of his life; and he is humane, too, and benevolent, and generous, but he calculates.  He does not spend his income; his house is neither brilliant nor bustling.  What good does he do to the paper-hangers, the carriage makers, the horse dealers, and the confectioners?”

These opinions, which are fatal to morality, are founded upon what strikes the eye:—­the expenditure of the prodigal; and another, which is out of sight, the equal and even superior expenditure of the economist.

But things have been so admirably arranged by the Divine inventor of social order, that in this, as in everything else, political economy and morality, far from clashing, agree; and the wisdom of Aristus is not only more dignified, but still more profitable, than the folly of Mondor.  And when I say profitable, I do not mean only profitable to Aristus, or even to society in general, but more profitable to the workmen themselves—­to the trade of the time.

To prove it, it is only necessary to turn the mind’s eye to those hidden consequences of human actions, which the bodily eye does not see.

Yes, the prodigality of Mondor has visible effects in every point of view.  Everybody can see his landaus, his phaetons, his berlins, the delicate paintings on his ceilings, his rich carpets, the brilliant effects of his house.  Every one knows that his horses run upon the turf.  The dinners which he gives at the Hotel de Paris attract the attention of the crowds on the Boulevards; and it is said, “That is a generous man; far from saving his income, he is very likely breaking into his capital.”  That is what is seen.