Where will you land?  As you are heading now, you will never be an earner—­it is more likely that you will be a spender—­of money.  You have been accustomed to lots of things you could not afford on ten thousand a year.  Of course, you can cut down to that figure; but where will it land you when you are married and have three daughters to send into society?  You will be worse off than Harris or Thompy in spite of the fact that you have twice as much as one and just as much as the other.

Here is a curious fact I noticed when in college.  I was asked by the manager of the crew to collect subscriptions for him, and I undertook the job in the dormitory in which I lived.  I often found that the richest men were the poorest.  They never had money with them, and, while they promised large amounts, they seldom paid; while the men of moderate means seemed to be the ones who would readily promise reasonable amounts, and then draw a check for it the first time you asked them.  I am stating these facts for the purpose of drawing some conclusions; and I think you will agree with me, particularly when I have proved them up by testing them from the other side.

The obvious conclusion sounds almost like a platitude,—­that it is not the amount of money one has that increases one’s happiness, but the use it is put to and the attitude of mind you have toward your income and the life you can lead with it.

Let us now apply this to your particular case, and draw some more conclusions.

A priori, you would be dissatisfied because you will be unable to do the things you have been accustomed to doing, and your attitude will be that of a man who has to deny himself things he thinks he wants.  You will then cut down the rate of expenditure to within your income, as you have a certain modicum of sense in regard to matters of this kind,—­not acquired, but inherited,—­and permit yourself to spend freely up to your limits.  Observe the result:—­

When at the end of ten years you are married, you will find there is no increase in income, and you will have a lot of expensive tastes for things which you have come to look upon as necessary; and the increased expenses of a household will make you give up all sorts of personal comforts.  This will make you feel poor, much poorer than Harris, for instance.  As your children appear, they will in turn rob you of more of the things you have been accustomed to.  You will have to keep a family horse and a pony, and give up trotters and boats.

I am not detailing these tragedies with the idea of painting a gloomy future, but merely to illustrate a point of view,—­a habit of mind.  I might say.