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ESSAYS IN PERSUASION

PART

of prices. Amidst the rapid fluctuations of hisfortunes he himself loses his conservative in-stincts, and begins to think more of the largegains of the moment than of the lesser, butpermanent, profits of normal business. Thewelfare of his enterprise in the relatively distantfuture weighs less with him than before, andthoughts are excited of a quick fortune andclearing out. His excessive gains have cometo him unsought and without fault or design onhis part, but once acquired he does not lightlysurrender them, and will struggle to retain hisbooty. With such impulses and so placed, thebusiness man is himself not free from a sup-pressed uneasiness. In his heart he loses hisformer self-confidence in his relation to Society ,in his utility and necessity in the economicscheme. He fears the future of his businessand his class, and the less secure he feels hisfortune to be the tighter he clings to it. Thebusiness man, the prop of Society and the builderof the future, to whose activities and rewardsthere had been accorded, not long ago, analmost religious sanction, he of all men andclasses most respectable, praiseworthy, and neces-sary, with whom interference was not only dis-astrous but almost impious, was now to suffersidelong glances, to feel himself suspected andattacked, the victim of unjust and injuriouslaws, — to become, and know himself halfguilty, a profiteer.

No man of spirit will consent to remain poorif he believes his betters to have gained their