Chapter LXXVI: Section CCXVIII: Prodigality and Frugality

Prodigality is less odious than avarice, less irreconcilable with certain virtues, but incomparably more detrimental to a nation's economy. The miser's treasures, even when they have been buried, may be employed productively, at least, after his death; but prodigality _destroys_ resources. So, too, avarice is a repulsive vice, extravagance a seductive one. The practice of frugality[218-1] in every day life is as far removed from one extreme as the other. It is the "daughter of wisdom, the sister of temperance and the mother of freedom." Only with its assistance can liberality be true, lasting and successful. It is, in short, reason and virtue in their application to consumption.[218-2] [218-3]

[Footnote 218-1: Negatively: the principle of sparing;
positively: the principle of making the utmost use of
things. (_Schäffle_, Kapitalismus und Socialismus, 27.)]

[Footnote 218-2: Admirable description of economy in _B.
Franklin's_ Pennsylvanian Almanac, How poor Rich. Saunders
got rich; also in _J. B. Say_, Traité, III, ch. 5. _Adam
Smith_, W. of N., II, ch. 3, endeavors to explain why it is
that, on the whole and on a large scale, the principle of
economy predominates over the seductions of extravagance.
This, however, is true only of progressive nations.]

[Footnote 218-3: The Savior Himself in His miracles, the
highest pattern of economy: _Matth._, 14, 20; _Mark_, 6, 43;
8, 8; _Luke_, 9, 17; _John_, 6, 12. That He did not intend
to prohibit thereby all noble luxury is shown by passages
such as _Matth._, 26, 6 ff.; _John_, 2, 10.]