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d by Google
ed byt OOgle
d by Google
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING
AND
HIGH THINKING.
d by Google
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING . . .
AND
. . . HIGH THINKING
a view ]9ear tK>mUs
BY
.THEODORE T. MUNGER
AUTHOR OP "cm THB THRBSHOLD," "tHB ntBXOOM
OP PAITH," BTC
A
NEW YORK
WILBXTR B. KETCHAM
2 OOOPSB UNION
d by Google
KCG'79%
H, aVARD
LIBi^ARY
OOPTBIGHT, 1897,
BY
WILBUB B. KETCHAM.
d by Google
A NEW YEAR HOMILY.
d by Google
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING AND HIGH
THINKING.
I have named what I am
about to say on the use of
money a homily^ in order to
ward off at the outset any pos-
sible criticism from the stu-
dents of finance ; and also to
assure my readers that I do not
propose to touch the subject by
the use of any word that shall
remind them of those ques-
tions of currency and mone-
tary standard that distract
the country. But I must be
allowed to make one or two
general statements that belong
7
d by Google
8 PLAIN LIVING,
quite as mucli to a homily as
to a treatise on finance. And
I will begin by asserting tbat
a study of the function of
money as a circulating me-
dium, of the principles under
which it is to be secured, of
the extent to which accumula-
tion of it may be made a mo-
tive, of the way in which it is
to be held and used, is the
most important study that life
sets before us, for the simple
reason that human society in
its civilized state is based upon
it, and moves on under it.
And I will also assert that as
money is the means through
which men are brought into
the most constant and widest
relation to one another, it
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 9
creates the chief field for the
play of character, and to such
a degree that the use of it be-
comes almost synonymous
with social virtue.
An hour of reflection on the
fact that money is the only
possible means by which we
can live together in civilized
ways, is enough to drive every
mean and trifling thought
which one may have had in
respect to it out of one's mind.
What is money ? Something
upon which men agree as a
means of the exchange of
values. What is money for ?
It is something that enables
one to give to another a value
that each wants. In this way
I am able to distribute among
d by Google
10 PLAIAT LIVING,
others any value tliat I may
have personally worked out,
making each one of them bet-
ter off, while I get from each
something that enriches my
life. I live for them and they
live for me. We are all better
off than we should be without
the exchange, but there could
be no exchange of values, save
in a limited degree, without a
circulating medium as a rep-
resentative of value.
Money stands for civiliza-
tion ; it is the means by which
men serve one another in mu-
tual ways ; and it has no other
use. It is perverted as all
good things are ; and the best
things are the most perverted
ā ^love, for example. But the
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING. II
nature of money as the me-
dium of interchanged values
makes it not only useful but
as sacred as human society
itself. It measures the space
between a life of social inter-
change and helpfulness, and a
life in which every man lives
in his own den and feeds on
the acorns and roots gathered
by his own hands. When we
drop below the use of money,
we find either utter savagery
or absolute slavery. But
money implies a voluntary ex-
change of values : each gives
his own to another for a value
received. Roughly speaking,
this may be said to be the
basis of rights ; the individual
has a right to his value, and a
d by Google
li PLAIJsr LIVING,
right to the representative of
the value when he sells it.
Unless these rights of property
are recognized, the process of
exchange of values ceases, and
society relapses into savagery
or slavery. So deeply and
thoroughly is this principle of
rights wrought into the nature
of human society that it can-
not be left out without the
destruction of society in its
civilized form. It is indeed
conceivable that society as a
whole might take all values
and properties into its hands
and make a common stock of
them, giving out to each man
his due reward after forcing
him to his due share of labor ;
it is conceivable, and it is
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 13
urged, but it would be a dif-
ferent sort of a world from
that in which we now live. It
implies another conception of
character, and another code of
morals ; it throws aside as un-
necessary more than half of
what are deemed the virtues ;
it ignores the supreme fact of
human nature ā ^namely, that
a man is an individual exist-
ing in relations but not lost
in them. It is true that as
society develops, the social re-
lation increases, but in the
same ratio must individualism
be cherished. The struggle
of society is to hold them in
equipoise; when either side
kicks the beam the other goes
out of existence. To preserve
d by Google
14 PLAIN LIVING,
the balance is the struggle of
society. Life is little else
than a realization of this two-
fold process; nearly all that
we do or learn conies about
in this way, and money is its
leading factor; it stands for
the whole imperative order,
and makes the money it-
self sacred. You take a
dollar in your hand and say :
" this stands for so much
pleasure ; for so much power ;
for whatever use I choose to
make of it." In a sense, it is
yours for your own use. But
look at it a little longer. It
stands for the constitution
and order of human society;
it is so much of the divine
order put into your hands to
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING. 15
be used in accordance with the
laws of society, and under that
high conception of it which
makes every man the helper
of every other by a mutual
exchange of values.
It is just here that gam-
bling gets its character as
a crime. A gambler not only
ceases to be a producer of
values, but he secures a value
without giving one in re-
turn. This is the inversion
and profanation of the use of
money, and the gambler is
properly treated as a criminal
and an enemy of society on the
simple ground that he breaks
its fundamental law. There
is along with ever-unfolding
development a tendency to re-
d by Google
l6 PLAIN LIVING,
version, " ever dragging evo-
lution in the mud," as Tenny-
son says ā and the clearest wit-
ness to it in society is the
toleration of gambling; the
next step is a social condition
in which even wampum has no
significance. Sacrilege is gen-
erally associated with religion,
but there is a social sacrilege,
that consists in a careless, tri-
fling and selfish use of money.
My chief purpose is to offer
some suggestions that may
help us to make the best use
of whatever money we may
happen to have, and therefore
I began by putting the matter
where it chiefly belongs ā
in the realm of morals ā z,
realm from which it can never
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING. 17
be taken out. However much
we have, whether one dollar
or a million, it is subject to
moral laws; and the use to
be made of it should employ
all the faculties of our nat-
ure. The author of "John
Halifax, Gentleman," truly
says ; " Our right or wrong
use of money is the utmost
test of character, as well as the
root of happiness or misery
throughout our whole life." It
is only by such a view of the
subject that we can find out
how to use money in wise and
right ways.
The desirableness of having
it is not to be questioned.
Even Agur who asked for
neither poverty nor riches, did
2
d by Google
l8 PLAIN LIVING,
not propose to get on without
enough to secure his needful
food. Too much might lead
him to deny the Lord, and too
little might tempt him to steal,
but the medium allowance was
imperative. The really im-
portant thing is to know how
to use what we have ; and the
very first thing to be settled
and written down on some
brass-enduring tablet is that
it is not necessary to have a
large income in order to live
in a true and high way. Set-
ting aside the unquestionable
fact that, as things are going
at present, those who have the
most are living in far other
than true and high ways, the
stem reality which confronts
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 19
most of US is that we must get
on with small incomes. We
may all be striving for large
ones, but the smaller will be
the allotment for the majority.
Starting under this inexor-
able probability, let us under-
take a little sober calculation
with a view to finding out if
those of us who have small
incomes are doomed to lives
of less refinement than those
whose incomes are large. The
whole subject is very mixed.
The race for money is a head-
long one and has several mo-
tives. Amongst them is one
urged in the walk of literature
where it ought not to be and
where wealth must always be
the exception ā ^to the effect
d by Google
20 PLAIN LIVING,
that a large income is necessary
to refined living. The amount
is graduated by city rents and
all that goes with them ; it
may be seven or eight thou-
sand or thereabout. The def-
inite suggestion that such an
income is necessary to refine-
ment is mischievous because
if true, by necessity it forces
the vast majority into the
hopeless highway of contented
vulgarity, or sours them by
holding up coveted but unat-
tainable blessings. If any ac-
cept the estimate as true, the
first thing they set about is to
secure the income, taking for
granted the refinement that
goes with it. It is relatively
easy to acquire the income, but
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 21
the refinement necessary to
turn it into use is a very dif-
ferent matter. The country
is full of people who have large
incomes but live in misery
because they lack the refine-
ment, ā that is, the intelli-
gence, the sensibility and the
manners which alone can turn
a large income to good ac-
count. They build ugly houses
and fill them with costly fur-
niture that indicates as plainly
the source of its selection as
if labels were still attached ;
books in abundance, perhaps,
but without those subtle marks
of literary intelligence which
not even the book-sellers can
impart ; pictures by good art-
ists, but they are a collection
d by Google
22 PLAIN LIVING,
and not a selection ; and so
throughout.
Now, all this is well enough
as the only possible start, but
it is a wof ul mistake to sup-
pose that a large income so
spent will bring about refine-
ment ; and it is a worse mis-
take to suppose that refinement
has much to do with income.
What Emerson says of pride
I would say of refinement : " it
can go without domestics, with-
out fine clothes, can live in a
house with two rooms, can eat
potato, purslain, beans, lyed
com, can work on the soil,
can travel afoot, can talk with
poor men, or sit silent well-
contented in fine saloons."
There is no question but that
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING. 23
up to a certain point money
adds greatly to ease and com-
fort in living and that it helps
to gratify refined tastes, but
refinement is something not
to be found in that category.
Indeed, a large income is often
a hindrance to it by inducing
certain ways of thinking and
feeling that are opposed to it.
Refinement bears a certain sub-
tle relation to simplicity which
is often hurt by an abundance
of money. If you were to
search for vulgarity in its most
pronounced form, you would
need to go amongst the very
rich. Take ignorance and self-
conceit, put them on the road
of good-luck or shrewdness
that brings up in a fortune.
d by Google
24 PLAIN LIVING,
and you have the best method
yet discovered for producing
vulgarity ; and as human nat-
ure keeps on hand a full sup-
ply of the first named condi-
tions, and as our favored coun-
try supplies the latter, there
is no lack of the sure product.
It is largely condoned but it is
no less real. It is one of the
dangers of wealth, as it is now
secured, that it may fail of the
very end of refined living
which it is thought to bring,
and go off in the opposite di-
rection, and so make more
conspicuous defects and faults
that otherwise would have re-
mained latent Money reveals
character far more often than
it creates it.
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING. 25
Refinement is first a matter
of heredity, then of education
and training, then of associa-
tions, and all along of certain
rules and habits pertaining to
the thoughts, the feelings and
the conduct. Money may help
in the matter of education,
though up to a high point it
is practically without much
cost in this country; but so
far as the other conditions are
concerned they have little to
do with wealth. Poverty in-
deed is unfavorable to refine-
ment. When the struggle
for life is severe, and the en-
vironment is unnourishing,
life sinks into hard and coarse
ways. Plato in " The Repub-
lic " discriminates evenly, giv-
d by Google
26 PLAIN LIVING,
ing each extreme a heavy
sentence ; " Wealth is the par-
ent of luxury and indolence,
and poverty of meanness and
viciousness, and both of dis-
content."
Upon the whole, the mid-
way position is the most fa-
vorable to genuine refinement.
In circles of wealth manners
are apt to lack simplicity and
moral quality, and are marked
by drawbacks in the way of
pride and exclusiveness, ā
qualities that are antagonistic
to refinement ; but in the mid-
way position all the virtues
are easier of attainment, espe-
cially those which put one
on good terms with one's fel-
low men.
d by Google
PLAm LIVING. 27
I think it was Sir Walter
Scott who first used the phrase,
" Plain living, and high think-
ing." It was called out by
his visit to Wordsworth whose
house of eight or ten rooms at
Grasmere contrasted strongly
with the magnificence of Ab-
botsford, while the scanty
board drove him to the neigh-
boring inn for a daily lunch-
eon. There is little doubt
which lived the more wisely.
There was equal refinement
in their homes and in their
manners, but Sir Walter wore
out his brains to secure high
living along with high think-
ing, and he did not wholly es-
cape certain moral defects that
are apt to creep into one's life
d by Google
28 PLAIN LIVING.
when one makes much of the
pomp of it.
The matter is well summed
up in some words of Mr, W.
H. Channing; and I can re-
call no author of the first order
who makes money a condition
of refinement or looks for it
elsewhere than in certain qual-
ities and conditions which find
in wealth quite as much to
hinder as to help. Lord Bacon,
wisest of men, introduces his
essay on " Riches " by saying :
" I cannot call riches better
than the baggage of virtue;
the Roman word is better ā
impedimenta ; for as baggage
is to an army, so is riches to
virtue ā ^it cannot be spared
nor left behind, but it hinder-
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING. 29
eth the marcli ; yea, and the
care of it sometimes loseth or
disturbeth the victory." But
here is what Mr. Channing
called, " My S3miphony " :
" To live content with small
means ; to seek elegance
rather than luxury, and re-
finement rather than fashion ;
to be worthy, not respectable ;
and wealthy, not rich; to
study hard, think quietly, talk
gently, act frankly ; to listen
to stars and birds, to babes
and sages with open heart ; to
bear all cheerfully, do all
bravely, await occasions, hurry
never ; ā in a word, to let the
spiritual, unbidden and un-
conscious, grow up through
the common."
lA-
d by Google
30 PLAIHr LIVING.
It is a strong word but a
true one that "the right or
wrong use of money is the
utmost test of character." I
know nothing in literature
that comes so near the truth
of the matter at this point as
what Sir Henry Taylor says
in his essay on " Money " :
" If we take account of all the
virtues with which money is
mixed up, ā ^honesty, justice,
generosity, charity, frugality,
forethought, self-sacrifice, ā
and of their correlative vices,
ā ^itis a knowledge which goes
near to cover the length and
breadth of humanity; and a
right measure and manner in
getting, saving, spending, giv-
ing, taking, lending, borrow-
ed by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 3 1
ing, bequeathing, would almost
arg^e a perfect man."
Bacon discourses in the
same strain : " Seek not proud
riches, but such as thou may-
est get justly, use soberly, dis-
tribute cheerfully, and leave
contentedly."
A remark of Bulwer's
clinches the thought : " Never
treat money affairs with levity; s
money is character." And
another from the author of
"John Halifax," strikes to
the centre of the subject : " A
person who is careless about
money is careless about every-
thing, and untrustworthy in
everything." In the interest
of some worthy people within
my knowledge who do not
d by Google
32 PLAIN LIVING.
seem to know what debt means,
I am inclined to make excep-
tions; but the remark holds
good in general. The foolish
virgins in the parable undoubt-
edly were amiable and excel-
lent young women in many
ways, but one would turn to
the other group with more
confidence if he were search-
ing for a trustworthy and re-
liable friend. The test of
wisdom is in having oil in
one's own lamp, in being ready
for occasions, and in having
the necessary means at hand.
This matchless parable would
have a just interpretation if
the oil were made to stand for
money, and the marriage for
the general business of life.
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 33
The application in that case
would pertain chiefly to the
oil, ā to securing, saving and
using it. Sir Henry Taylor
is not astray when he makes
the right use of money well-
nigh the sure sign of a perfect
man. Industry and energy
are measured in earning it;
conscience and heart are meas-
ured by the way in which it is
spent ; good sense is shown in
the way in which one divides
one's income and sets it apart
for the threefold use of saving,
giving and spending. Over
against those uses of it which
reveal the virtues are the op-
posite uses of it which reveal
the vices ; and they nearly fill
the whole category. Just as
d by Google
34 PLAIN LIVING,
money stands as the main
instrument of society, a sort
of centre around which it re-
volves by common agreement,
in the same way and as a nec-
essary consequence the use
of it becomes the sign and
test of character. A miserly
use of money puts character
at the bottom. Spendthrift
habits show it on its weakest
side. A dishonest use of
money is a crime, whether the
laws are broken or not. A care-
less, unregulated use of money
may go along with genius
though not with every-day com-
mon sense ; but it beclouds and
belittles the genius. Excessive
carefulness in spending does
not indicate a noble nature ;
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 35
excessive freedom does not in-
dicate a strong one. To save
or to spend only for self is
meanness. To g^ve recklessly
and impulsively is no proof of
generosity. To care only for
money ā ^how to get and spend
it,ā this is the root of all evil.
To pay no heed to money ā
how to get and use it, is folly
at first hand.
A large part of the troubles
and perplexities of life come
from an imregulated, or rather
an uneducated, sense of the
way in which money is to be
handled. Most of us know
more about getting it ā ^unless
we speculate, in which case
we know nothing about it ā
than about using it. To gain
d by Google
36 PLAIN LIVING.
money is simple ; to use it is
complex, and calls for well-
adjusted rules, and the wisdom
that looks before and after.
I will venture upon two or
three suggestions in this di-
rection.
I. I would urge upon every
child of humanity, who takes
in and gives out money, the
habit of keeping a cash ac-
count ; ā ^a suggestion that re-
quires no Daniel, you say.
Perhaps so, but if it were
heeded and followed there
would be a great deal more
practical righteousness flowing
up and down the streets in
city and country than is now
to be seen. It is a custom of
business, but it should be
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING. 37
universal. I am aware that
there is a large class of sen-
sible persons who say : "I
receive so much ; I strive to
spend it wisely and to save
what I can ; why the bother
of accounts ? " Such persons
miss one of the most import-
ant lessons in life. The habit
itself is a good discipline, ā in
memory, order, accuracy, and
general business methods.
But more than all it teaches
one the art of spending money.
Representing as it does the
greater part of what we do,
and constituting one of our
main relations to society, we
do not know the significance
of our conduct nor how we are
related to the world until we
d by Google
38 PLAIN LIVING,
know how we spend our money.
To receive so much and spend
it for what we happen to want
or need ā making no farther
note of it, is like guessing at
the time of day. We insist on
the accuracy of our watches to
the minute, but how our in-
come is divided up is guess-
work. It would help a man
amazingly to a correct estimate
of himself if he had an ac-
curate and definite knowledge
of how, when, and for what he
spends his income. How else
can a well-meaning person
properly adjust this great fac-
tor to his life ? It is only by
the book-keepers' art that he
can know how much has gone
into the several departments
d by Google
PLAIN LIVING, 39
of expenditure; and a review of
the accounts would show him
whether he has been wise or
foolish, prudent or careless,