ETERNAL REST GIVE UNTO THEM, O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM. AMEN.
There is a great impulse dictated by the vital energies of man, and implanted as an irresistible instinct in certain animals that require it, viz., to provide in advance materials for the support of life. The beaver and the ant lay up supplies of food for their future needs and those of their unborn progeny. Man, having to provide the necessaries of life by his own labour, and being endowed with intelligent foresight, possesses by nature the faculty of acquisitiveness and the sense of ownership. The rights of property are one of the chief bases of social organization. Progress is impossible when men live from hand to mouth, providing each day's food by each day's labour. The accumulation of wealth is necessary for the avoidance of famine, for the accomplishment of great enterprises which are not at once productive, and for the securing of leisure for mental cultivation, for exploration, for the numerous functions of government, and, unfortunately, also for war. The virtue of Economy regulates this impulse. It refers man to God as the remote giver of daily bread, and reminds him that man's labour is the means by which God provides for him; it helps him to maintain the golden mean between excessive accumulation and excessive profusion; it shows him, as a member of society, that the accumulation of wealth is fostered by social organization as well as by his own labour, and that the community should draw profit from it as well as the individual. Take these lessons to heart.
