But the art of
wealth-getting which consists in household management, on the other
hand, has a limit; the unlimited acquisition of wealth is not its
business. And, therefore, in one point of view, all riches must have a
limit; nevertheless, as a matter of fact, we find the opposite to be
the case; for all getters of wealth increase their hoard of coin
without limit. The source of the confusion is the near connection
between the two kinds of wealth-getting; in either, the instrument
is the same, although the use is different, and so they pass into
one another; for each is a use of the same property, but with a
difference: accumulation is the end in the one case, but there is a
further end in the other. Hence some persons are led to believe that
getting wealth is the object of household management, and the whole
idea of their lives is that they ought either to increase their
money without limit, or at any rate not to lose it. The origin of this
disposition in men is that they are intent upon living only, and not
upon living well; and, as their desires are unlimited they also desire
that the means of gratifying them should be without limit. Those who
do aim at a good life seek the means of obtaining bodily pleasures;
and, since the enjoyment of these appears to depend on property,
they are absorbed in getting wealth: and so there arises the second
species of wealth-getting.
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