the power of gold than if that Italian prince had added some rare manuscripts to his own library without having time or knowledge to decipher them? I cannot but think that the rich may serve the cause of culture best by a judicious exercise of patronage--unless, indeed, they have within themselves the sense of that irresistible vocation which made Humboldt use his fortune as the servant of his high ambition. The Humboldts never are too rich; they possess their gold and are not possessed by it, and they are exempt from the duty of aiding others because they themselves have a use for all their powers. LETTER II TO A GENIUS CARELESS IN MONEY MATTERS. Danger of carelessness--Inconveniences of poverty unfavorable to the Intellectual Life--Necessity advances men in industrial occupations, but disturbs and interrupts the higher intellectual life--Instances in science, literature, and art--Careers aided by wealth--Mr. Ruskin--De Saussure--Work spoiled by poverty in the doing--The central passion of men of ability is to do their work well--The want of money the most common hindrance to excellence of work--De Sénancour--Bossuet-- Sainte-Beuve--Shelley-- Wordsworth--Scott--Kepler--Tycho Brahe--Schiller--Goethe--Case of an eminent English philosopher, and of a French writer of school-primers--Loss of time in making experiments on public taste--_Surtout ne pas trop écrire_--Auguste Comte--The reaction of the intellectual against money-making--Money the protector of the intellectual life. I have been anxious for you lately, and venture to write to you about the reasons for this anxiety. You are neither extravagant nor self-indulgent, yet it seems to me that your entire absorption in the higher intellectual pursuits has produced in you, as it frequently does, a carelessness about material interests of all kinds which is by far the most dangerous of all tempers to the pecuniary well-being of a man. Sydney Smith declared that no fortune could stand that temper long, and that we are on the high road to ruin the moment we think ourselves rich enough to be careless.