Of
course, all that the parish authorities had doled out to these poor-rich
men was duly repaid by their executors.
And what did these rich persons leave behind them? Only the reputation
that they had died rich men. But riches do not constitute any claim to
distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches. Money is
a drug in the market. Some of the most wealthy men living are mere
nobodies. Many of them are comparatively ignorant. They are of no moral
or social account. A short time since, a list was published of two
hundred and twenty-four English millionaires. Some were known as screws;
some were "smart men" in regard to speculations; some were large
navvies, coal-miners, and manufacturers; some were almost unknown beyond
their own local circle; some were very poor creatures; very few were men
of distinction. All that one could say of them was, that they died rich
men.
"All the rich and all the covetous men in the world," said Jeremy
Taylor, "will perceive, and all the world will perceive for them, that
it is but an ill recompense for all their cares, that by this time all
that shall be left will be this, that the neighbours shall say, _He died
a rich man:_ and yet his wealth will not profit him in the grave, but
hugely swell the sad accounts of his doomsday."
"One of the chief causes," says Mrs.
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