"
It was this writer who originated the custom of classifying men by their
horse-power, and who divided them into genera, species, varieties, and
subvarieties, giving them names from the hypothetical language which
expressed the number of limbs which they could command at any moment. He
showed that men became more highly and delicately organised the more
nearly they approached the summit of opulence, and that none but
millionaires possessed the full complement of limbs with which mankind
could become incorporate.
"Those mighty organisms," he continued, "our leading bankers and
merchants, speak to their congeners through the length and breadth of the
land in a second of time; their rich and subtle souls can defy all
material impediment, whereas the souls of the poor are clogged and
hampered by matter, which sticks fast about them as treacle to the wings
of a fly, or as one struggling in a quicksand: their dull ears must take
days or weeks to hear what another would tell them from a distance,
instead of hearing it in a second as is done by the more highly organised
classes. Who shall deny that one who can tack on a special train to his
identity, and go wheresoever he will whensoever he pleases, is more
highly organised than he who, should he wish for the same power, might
wish for the wings of a bird with an equal chance of getting them; and
whose legs are his only means of locomotion? That old philosophic enemy,
matter, the inherently and essentially evil, still hangs about the neck
of the poor and strangles him: but to the rich, matter is immaterial; the
elaborate organisation of his extra-corporeal system has freed his soul.
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