Acknowledged worldly success for which full credit is given publicly is not necessarily achieved by the exercise of superior intellectual or business ability, but can be obtained, just as titles and honours, by the judicious expenditure of money. It naturally appeals strongly to people who like appreciation and applause, and after all, who does not? But the worth of a man can no more be estimated by his money value than the worth of an article. The doctor who charges a high fee is not _ipso facto_ a good doctor, but many of them are astute enough to see that by raising their fee they can enhance their reputation, so easily gullible do they know their rich patients to be. The same with lawyers, who trade on the folly of those who can afford the luxury of litigation. This expensive system reacts upon the administration of justice, because it means that in the majority of cases it is only the rich who can secure the best legal skill for their defence in the courts. Thus even our boasted equality before the law is not immune from this universal disease. In the scientific and creative world great achievements receive next to no recompense and often only very tardy recognition. Great services and great merit have no price: a gift of money is no reward for the man who has experienced the inestimable satisfaction of real achievement unless it is to prevent his falling into penury. Public opinion is quite unable to judge true merit, so high fees, huge salaries, grants, and fabulous prices are reserved for those beings and those things to which fashion and popular clamour point at the moment. An Italian old master which fifty years ago could be bought for fifty pounds or so will now fetch as many hundreds or even thousands. A mezzotint which a few years back cost a trifling sum can now be sold for fifty times the amount. So it is with all _objets d’art_, plate, or furniture. The price does not represent value nor demand, but the passing fancy of rich collectors who set the fashion of the day which they and the dealers create among themselves without reference to artistic merit or good taste, or even popular appreciation. By the fabulous prices which nowadays are asked and given some estimate can be made of the resources of those who have got these vast sums to play with. So that even in the purchase of works of art, which need not be classed as luxuries, for they can be in the highest sense remunerative, an ever-increasing amount of money is absolutely wasted in speculation and gambling.