The world had
nothing against him.
"When he died and left me his money--I was then at school, preparing for
Oxford--it was necessary that I should look into the affairs of the
business, for it was my mother's wish that I should follow the same. In
the course of my investigation, I came across things not a few in the
books, all fair and square in the judgment of the trade itself, which
made me doubtful, and which at last, unblinded by custom, I was
confident were unfair, that is dishonest. Thereupon I began to argue
with myself: 'What is here?' I said. 'Am I to use the wages of iniquity
as if they were a clean God-gift? If there has been wrong done there
must be atonement, reparation. I cannot look on this money as mine, for
part of it at least, I cannot say how much, ought not to be mine.' The
truth flashed upon me; I saw that my business in life must be to send
the money out again into the channels of right. I could claim a
workman's wages for doing that. The history of the business went so far
back that it was impossible to make return of more than a small
proportion of the sums rightly due; therefore something else, and that a
large something, must be done as well.
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