"Yes. Aren't yours?"
"We keep them fairly poor as a rule."
"It is the only possible way. The mind is of much more importance than the body, and it cannot do fullest justice to itself if it is hampered by the distractions of wealth, or clogged by luxury. For that reason, I take it, in both countries, we keep our learned men poor, and strive after what knowledge we can."
"I can't say that in my country we all strive after it," I said. "We don't like to let our learned men feel that we are cutting them out."
"Ah, I think that is a mistake; but perhaps it is not a bad one. If there is one thing that our upper classes lack, it is humility. I suppose, though, that all your people do earnestly desire the best gifts in life—knowledge, high character, and so on!"
"Most of us, of course. But there are some who seem to prefer to be merely well off."
"Ah, I'm afraid that there will always be those; but I rather gather from things that you have let fall that you don't despise them quite as much as we do."
"Possibly a shade less. We are charitable in that respect."
"Then you are always ready to relieve a rich man of his wealth, I suppose?"