but if they do not bear fruit and produce nothing to justify their being, they are condemned to destruction on the charges of inefficiency. An efficient working-man, therefore, has always a good deal of leisure for culture, for the beauty of the earth and for the education of his children. But for the rich man, who has not the need to work for a livelihood, life is not only comfortable and easy, but also infinitely tedious and wearisome. He has always too much time on his hands and cannot find any means of killing it. This makes him seek distraction, pleasure and amusement, and leads him by degrees to a voluptuous and reckless life, void of the sense of moral responsibility and of the dignity of a human being. In order to save himself from ennui, the possessor of wealth plunges into the whirlpool of pleasure and revelry, which quickly degenerates into the pursuit of mere sensual gratifications and the worship of the golden calf. He becomes a slave to his appetites and passions, and in the end loses both body and soul, becoming a victim of his own material prosperity.
