To many people what I
have just said will appear as giving a very undue pre-
ponderance to the management of money. Admitting
the wisdom of what was said of old, ' The love of money
is a root of all kinds of evil,' it is equally true that the
discreet management of money is the root of all kinds of
good, especially with young people. Nothing is so selfish
as extravagance. No one can doubt the truth, as put
by the modern writer who says : ' Never treat money
affairs with levity — money is character.' If you can say
SONS 265
of your children, when they are twenty-one, that they
have never been in debt and have never asked you for
money, you have attained a satisfactory platform, which
will enormously help the dignity of the situation. Such
children's minds have not been pauperised, and the parent
has not been put into the difficult and painful position of
having to refuse or yield to a beggar. Children, on the
other hand, should be helped to remember that, however
free they may be left as regards the expenditure of their
own allowances, no man, woman, or child is free while
entirely dependent on money which they neither earn
nor possess by inheritance. How often does a son, fresh
from leaving school, who is dying to go for a visit or a
holiday, or to buy a gun or a dog, go first to his mother,
of whom he is not afraid, to plead his cause with his
father for the money he wants ! This is a distinctly
wrong system, whether the father is rich or poor, an
extravagant man himself, or the contrary. If the boy
gets what he wants at once, he accepts it as a right, and is
quite ready at Christmas to ask for more. If it is denied or
grudgingly given, he resents it with irritation as a want
of generosity and a needless check on his pleasures.
Whereas, if the amount of the allowance is from the first
proportioned to the income of the parents, it is brought
home to their minds what the children are likely to cost
them ; while the boy is made to realise that, be the
allowance large or small, his expenses must be propor-
tioned to it. In the case of really poor parents it is
especially necessary to impress upon the whole family
that, with regard to pleasures, education, or even
necessities, everything is subservient to the fact that
money can only go as far as it will. Of course, if it were
necessary, or even desirable, each member of a family
might contribute what he or she can afford to the
advantage of one member of it. Not a bad illustration of
266 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN
what I mean is touchingly told in the Life of Sir James
Simpson, the famous Edinburgh doctor. All his elder
brothers contributed to educate the clever youth, above
their station in life, for a profession of which he became
so distinguished an ornament.
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To many people what I
have just said will appear as giving a very undue pre-
ponderance to the management of money. Admitting
the wisdom of what was said of old, ' The love of money
is a root of all kinds of evil,' it is equally true that the
discreet management of money is the root of all kinds of
good, especially with young people. Nothing is so selfish
as extravagance. No one can doubt the truth, as put
by the modern writer who says : ' Never treat money
affairs with levity — money is character.' If you can say
SONS 265
of your children, when they are twenty-one, that they
have never been in debt and have never asked you for
money, you have attained a satisfactory platform, which
will enormously help the dignity of the situation. Such
children's minds have not been pauperised, and the parent
has not been put into the difficult and painful position of
having to refuse or yield to a beggar. Children, on the
other hand, should be helped to remember that, however
free they may be left as regards the expenditure of their
own allowances, no man, woman, or child is free while
entirely dependent on money which they neither earn
nor possess by inheritance. How often does a son, fresh
from leaving school, who is dying to go for a visit or a
holiday, or to buy a gun or a dog, go first to his mother,
of whom he is not afraid, to plead his cause with his
father for the money he wants ! This is a distinctly
wrong system, whether the father is rich or poor, an
extravagant man himself, or the contrary. If the boy
gets what he wants at once, he accepts it as a right, and is
quite ready at Christmas to ask for more. If it is denied or
grudgingly given, he resents it with irritation as a want
of generosity and a needless check on his pleasures.
Whereas, if the amount of the allowance is from the first
proportioned to the income of the parents, it is brought
home to their minds what the children are likely to cost
them ; while the boy is made to realise that, be the
allowance large or small, his expenses must be propor-
tioned to it. In the case of really poor parents it is
especially necessary to impress upon the whole family
that, with regard to pleasures, education, or even
necessities, everything is subservient to the fact that
money can only go as far as it will. Of course, if it were
necessary, or even desirable, each member of a family
might contribute what he or she can afford to the
advantage of one member of it. Not a bad illustration of
266 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN
what I mean is touchingly told in the Life of Sir James
Simpson, the famous Edinburgh doctor. All his elder
brothers contributed to educate the clever youth, above
their station in life, for a profession of which he became
so distinguished an ornament.