If the suggested volume, _The Life and Leisure of some People_, or _Riches: a Study of Town Life_ is ever written, any comment on the carefully tabulated investigations would be quite unnecessary. As in the case of the books on Poverty, the bare statement of facts is eloquent enough by itself. Mr. Rowntree concludes his book with this pregnant phrase: “That in this land of abounding wealth, during a time of, perhaps, unexampled prosperity, probably more than a quarter of the population are living in poverty is a fact that may well cause great searchings of heart.” This might be paraphrased: “That in this land, where more than a quarter of the population are living in poverty, the abounding wealth of the country should be retained by a comparatively small number of people, who squander their riches in a way that brings no happiness to themselves and inflicts misery and hardships on others, is a fact that may well cause great searchings of heart.” Chapter IX Religion and money--Attitude of clergy--Emphatic condemnation of riches by Christ--Notable texts and sayings--Want of conviction--Importance attached to dogmatic religion--Necessity for stronger denunciation. “The religion we profess has for one of its most significant and salient features the denunciation of wealth as a trust or a pursuit: Christianity condemns riches as a snare, a danger, and almost a sin, and even Pagan-nurtured sages and statesmen are never weary of pointing out how this disastrous passion vitiates all our estimates of life and its enjoyments, and fosters and exasperates all our social sores. Yet in England and America, perhaps the two most sincerely Christian nations in the world--one the cradle, the other the offspring of Puritanism--the pursuit nearest to a universal one, the passion likest to a national one is money-getting; not the effort after competence or comfort, but the pushing, jostling, trampling struggle for vast possessions or redundant affluence.” The above is a quotation from the _Enigmas of Life_, by W. R. Greg. He wrote this in 1873, and the passage goes on to observe that there were signs of a sounder perception which might herald a reaction against the struggle for money. His forecast, however, was wrong, for even in the last thirty years the scramble has become much wilder, the power of wealth greater, the influence of the wealthy more extensive, and the millionaire more common, while luxurious living has outstripped all reasonable bounds.