Precis Paragraph 05

Nothing sharpens a man’s wits like poverty. Hence many of the greatest men have originally been poor men. Poverty often purifies and braces a man’s morals. To spirited people, difficult tasks are usually the most delightful ones. If we may rely upon the testimony of history, men are brave, truthful and magnanimous not in proportion to their wealth, but in proportion to their smallness of means. And the best are often the poorest—always supposing that they sufficient to meet their temporal wants. A divine has said that God has created poverty but He has not created misery. And there is certainly a great difference between the two. While honest poverty is honourable, misery is humiliating, in as much as the latter is for the most part the result of misconduct and often of idleness and drunkenness. Poverty is no disgrace to him who can put up with it, but he who finds the beggar’s staff get warm in his hand, never does any good but a great amount of evil.
The poor are often the happiest of people—far more so than the rich, but though they may be envied, no one will be found willing to take their place. Moore has told the story of the over-fed, over-satisfied Eastern despot who sent a messenger to travel through the world in order to find out the happiest man. When discovered, the messenger was immediately to seize him, take his shirt off his back and bring it to the Chief. The messenger found the happiest man in an Irishman—happy, dancing and flourishing his shillelagh. But when the ambassador proceeded to seize him and undress him, he found that the Irishman had no shirt to his back.[287 words]