Article July 6, 1907 Issue

WEALTH AS SCIENTIFICALLY UNDERSTOOD

H. L. GWALTER

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.—Proverbs, 13:7.

Wealth is abundance, plenty, possession, riches, treasure, substance. Marshall in his "Principles of Economics" says that a man's wealth is to be taken to consist of two classes of goods, ... those material goods to which he has, by law or custom, private rights of property and which are therefore transferable and exchangeable, and those immaterial goods which belong to him and serve directly as the means of enabling him to acquire material goods. A still better sense of wealth is given in the word richness, expressing not the possession of riches, but "being rich." Richness is the overflowing plenty of inherent quality, excellence, fruitfulness; we thus can speak of the wealth of the soil, the wealth of affection.

The word wealth is a derivative of weal, signifying a sound, healthy, prosperous state,—happiness, prosperity, well-being. Commonweal and commonwealth signify strictly the common good, and the primary sense of weal is strength, soundness. The true nature of wealth is best expressed in the word affluence. Affluence means a profuse or abundant supply, a flowing toward, concourse. The dictionary defines affluence as "abundance of material goods, accompanied with generous expenditure." The realization of affluence therefore demands that abundance be made liberal use of, in giving out, imparting. We could not speak of a miser as living in affluence, though we might speak of his hoarded wealth as useless riches. Affluence implies a "flowing readily"—which suggests Life; a "flowing toward,"—which tells of Love; the having or furnishing of abundance,—abounding in substance, which to be ever abounding must be infinite, eternal Truth. We find then that wealth signifies a state of having more than common abundance, and while wealth does not allow of limitation, on the contrary riches are always measurable,—having a limit, coming to an end somewhere and at some time.

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