wisdom of life

Chapter 6 Property Owned by Persons

The great happiness educator Epicurus correctly and beautifully divides human needs into three categories.The first category belongs to the natural and urgent needs of man.These needs are painful if they are not met.Needs of this class, food and clothing, are more easily satisfied.The second type of need is equally natural, but not urgent.That is the need for erotic satisfaction, though Epicurus does not say it in the Report of Laiates (here I express his doctrine more clearly and fully).It is relatively difficult to meet this type of need.The third class of needs is neither natural nor urgent, and that is the pursuit of luxury, pomp, extravagance, and splendor.These needs are endless, and it is very difficult to satisfy them.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to set limits to our reasonable desires in matters of property ownership, since the satisfaction of a person in owning property is not determined by the absolute determined by the quantity.In fact, it depends on a relative quantity, that is to say, it is determined by the relationship between the property a person expects and what he actually owns.Therefore, it is meaningless to consider only a person's actual possession. This situation is like calculating a fraction by only calculating the numerator and ignoring the denominator.When the demand for something has not entered a person's consciousness, the person will not feel lacking for it at all.Without such a thing, he still feels at ease.But a man who has more than a hundred times his wealth will feel unhappy as long as he wants something and doesn't get it.Each of us has an individual horizon for what we think is possible.Our requirements do not extend beyond this line of sight.Once there is something concrete within our range of mind, and we are sure that we can get it, then we will feel happy.But if there are many difficulties in obtaining this specific thing, and he has no hope or possibility of obtaining it at all, then he will feel unhappy and painful.Everything outside his line of sight has no effect on him.Therefore, the poor will not be anxious because they will not get great wealth, but the rich will not take into account that they already have considerable property and comfort themselves when their plans fail.Wealth is like sea water: the more sea water a man drinks, the thirstier he becomes.The same principle applies to fame.After we have lost our wealth or our comfort, when we have survived the initial pain, our usual state of mind has not changed much from the original state of mind.This is because when fate reduces our wealth, we ourselves reduce our requirements accordingly.In the event of misfortune, the above process is indeed extremely painful; but after this process is completed, the pain is much reduced, and in the end it is not even felt, because the wound has healed.Conversely, with luck, the compressor of our expectations inflates them, and we experience pleasure in the process.However, this joy will not last long.When the whole process is completed, the expanded range of requirements has become accustomed to us; and, compared with the new requirements, we will become numb to our current possessions.Homer expresses what I mean here in Section No. 18 of the Odyssey.The last two lines of this section read:

The moods of mortals are erratic,
Like the days given by God, the Father of men.

The reason we are dissatisfied is that we keep trying to increase our demands, while at the same time other conditions that hinder our success remain the same.

In a species as poor and needy as man, it is not surprising that wealth is more and more sincerely respected, even adored, than anything else.Even power itself is only a tool for acquiring wealth.And it is not surprising that everything can be set aside and overthrown for the purpose of acquiring wealth.This is what happens to philosophy, for example, in the hands of a professor of philosophy.

People are often accused of being preoccupied with money and loving money above all else.In fact, it is natural, even inevitable, that people love money.Money is like the never-weary Plutus [1], ready every moment to become the object demanded by our erratic desires and changing needs.Any other good can only satisfy one need, food for the hungry, wine for the healthy, medicine for the sick, furs for winter, women for boys, and so on.Therefore, they are all just "serving a specific thing", and their benefits are relative.Only money has absolute benefits.Because it does not just meet a specific need, but meets a variety of general needs in the abstract.

We should regard our present wealth as a wall against many possible misfortunes and calamities, and not as a license to enjoy our pleasures, or as if we are doing ourselves wrong if we don't drink too much.If a person relies on some kind of talent—whatever it is—from being penniless to earning a lot of money, he will delusionally believe that his talent is a permanent and unchanging nature. Gold, the money he earns is only interest on the principal.Therefore, he will not accumulate part of the money he earns as a fixed and long-term principal, but spend the money he earns casually.Thus they usually end up in poverty, for if their talents last only a short time, as is the case with almost all those who practice the fine arts, their natural talents will sometimes dry up and be exhausted. .Or, their ability to earn money depends on certain circumstances and certain ethos.This environment and atmosphere then disappeared, and their money income also stopped.Handcrafters can spend as much money as I said above, because they will not lose their crafting talents easily, and they will not be replaced by the strength of assistants and helpers.Moreover, their products are the objects of popular demand, so there is no need to worry about finding a market.Therefore, this statement is correct: "To master a craft is to get a golden job." The situation encountered by various types of entertainers and artists is not the same.Because of this, the rewards they get are so generous.The money they earn should therefore become their principal.But they treat the money they earn as interest only.In this way, they come to a poor end.In contrast, the person who inherits the property at least immediately and correctly understands what is the principal and what is the interest.Therefore, most of them will try their best to protect their principal safely.In fact, if possible, they would save at least one-eighth of the interest for future needs.As a result, most of them live in abundance and affluence.What I am saying here does not apply to businessmen, for to businessmen money itself is a means of earning more money, a means by which they make money.So, even though money is what they earn by sweat, they still try to use it in the best possible way to preserve and increase their capital.These people, therefore, know how to use money more skillfully and appropriately than any other class of people.

In general, those who have experienced want and poverty are less afraid of poverty and therefore more inclined to extravagance.This is compared to those who have only heard of poverty.The former includes those who, by some kind of good luck, or by a special special quality, whatever it may be, have risen rapidly from poverty to moderate prosperity; the latter include those born and raised People from good families.The latter are more future-oriented, so they live a more frugal life than the former.From this, we can conclude that poverty is not as bad as we roughly make it out to be.In this case, however, the real reason may be that those born into wealthy families have come to regard wealth as essential, as essential as air, as an element of the only possible life.Therefore, they guard their property as vigilantly as they guard their own life.So they are usually methodical, cautious and thrifty.In contrast, those born into generations of poverty take poverty for granted.The wealth they have inherited is just a superfluous thing for them, and it is only natural to use the wealth for enjoyment or squandering!Once the money is exhausted, they still live as before when they had no money, and they are free from one trouble!It's like Shakespeare said:

Once the beggar got on the mount, he had to run the horse to death.

——"Henry V"

Such people, of course, have a firm and exaggerated confidence in their own luck and abilities, both of which have helped them to escape their circumstances of poverty.However, their faith is more in their hearts than in their heads.Because they, unlike those born wealthy, do not see poverty as a bottomless pit.They figured they could resurface with just a few firm kicks on the ground.This characteristic of human nature can explain why women from poor families are usually more picky, more particular, extravagant and extravagant than rich women who bring a generous dowry to their husbands, because in most cases, women from rich families Not just money.They also have a more fervent, hereditary desire to protect property than do poorer girls.Whoever holds a contrary opinion on this, however, will find an authoritative statement of support for his view in Ariostu's first satire.But Dr. Johnson [2] agrees with me: "A rich woman who is used to handling money will spend it carefully. But a woman who has first gained power over money after marriage will use it boldly. She is simply a profligate spendthrift." (The Life of Johnson, by Boswell) In any case, I would advise those who marry poor women not to let them inherit the principal, but only to receive a share of the capital. annuity.In particular, they need to be careful not to hand over their children's property to them.

I am here to remind people to be cautious about the preservation of earned or inherited property.I believe that in doing so I did not write something worthless with my pen.If a man possesses enough property from the outset to be truly self-sufficient, that is, to maintain a comfortable life without exertion--even just enough to maintain himself without his family--that is A precious superiority; for by it the man is freed from the wants and toils which beset life, and he is also freed from the drudgery of the masses, which is the natural lot of mortals.Only those who are favored and favored by fate can be truly free.Such a man becomes his own master, the master of his own time and his own strength.Every morning he can say: "Today is mine." For this reason, there is a vast difference between a man with an annuity of one thousand thalers and a man with an annuity of one hundred thousand thalers. Less than the difference between the former and a man with nothing.If the ancestral family property falls into the hands of a person with high spiritual endowment-a person who wants to pursue a career that is not very suitable for earning money-then the inheritance can realize its highest value , for the man is now doubly gifted by fate, and he may live for his genius.He was able to do what no one else could, to create something that was good for all and that brought him glory.In this way he repaid his debt to the world a hundredfold.Others in the same superior living conditions can contribute to humanity through charitable activities.In contrast, if a person inherits an inheritance and does none of the above-even if he only tries to do so, or achieves only a little achievement-or, if he does not even try to study something in detail A science, to support and promote the development of this science; then, such a person is just a shameful idler.Such a person cannot be happy either, because to be freed from poverty would only lead him to the other extreme of life's misery—boresh.Boredom is such a torment that he would be happier if his poverty had given him something to do.Boredom and idleness soon lead him to extravagance, by which he is deprived of advantages which he does not deserve.Many wealthy people end up in poverty because they spend it, just to seek a moment's respite from the ennui that oppresses them.

But if our aim is to attain high positions in public service, that is another matter entirely, for to that end we must win friends, maintain relations, and be favored by others; promotion to the top position.So, fundamentally, it was better to come into this world penniless.In particular, this person does not have a prominent and noble background, but has certain talents.If the man is a pauper with nothing, that is a real advantage to him, and he can be supported by others.Because what everyone likes and looks for is the shortcomings and shortcomings of others-this is already the case in the conversation between people, and it is even more so in the national public affairs.Only a pauper can be convinced of his own absolute, total, all-round inferiority to the degree required to realize his own insignificance and worthlessness.Only in this case, such people will nod and bow to people incessantly, and only their bows will be as deep as ninety degrees.Only such a person can endure everything and always smile back.They alone know the utter worthlessness of their offerings; Very powerful; and only this kind of person would beg for mercy.It is therefore only they who, in their youth, advocate the following unknown truth - a truth which Goethe shows us in these words:

Let no one complain about meanness and indecency, for only meanness and indecentness are powerful.

In contrast, people who live a carefree life from the beginning are mostly difficult to control.They are accustomed to strut themselves, and have not learned the above-mentioned art of living in the world.Perhaps they have certain talents that they can be proud of, but they should realize that these talents are no match for mediocrity and flattery.Ultimately, they see the mediocrity and inferiority of those who occupy a higher position than themselves.In addition, if they also suffer from other people's insults and all kinds of outrageous things, they will be ashamed, dazed and afraid.That's not the way to survive in this world.Instead, they should join the brave Voltaire in saying: "Our time in this world is not worth crawling under the feet of despicable villains." The word "bad guy" can be applied to many people in this world.Therefore, we can see the verse of Juvenal [3]:

In a cramped and narrow room, unable to display,

It is very difficult to hold your head high.

It is more suitable for the profession of performing arts, not for other worldly and profiteering people.

In the chapter "Property a Man Owns," I did not include wife and children, because it is not so much that a man owns his wife and children as that his wife and children own him.Friends are rather to be included among one's possessions, but even here the possessor is to some extent another's possession.

注释
[1] Plutus: the fickle god of the sea in Greek mythology. - translator

[2] Dr. Johnson (1709-1784): British poet, critic, biographer, essayist and lexicographer. - translator

[3] Juvenalis (approximately 60-approximately 140): The last and most influential satirical poet in ancient Rome. - translator

(End of this chapter)