A Lamp to the Path / Or, The Word of God in the Heart, the Home, the Workshop and the Market-Place

by W. K. Tweedie

And what was the result? How did a passion so extraordinary affect those who had been impelled by its power? THE
SUBSTANCE
THROWN
AWAY. The bubble burst at length, and though a fierce tornado had swept over Holland, the devastation could scarcely have been more complete. The hopes which had been so unnaturally inflated began to collapse. Panic seized upon the speculators, and bankruptcy followed panic, as rapidly as the house which is built of cards is demolished by a blow. It soon appeared that tulips were neither gold, nor houses, nor lands; neither bread for the hungry, nor clothing for the naked, nor a home for the friendless; and the worthlessness of the flower in itself, became the emblem of the delusions which it had fostered. Every town in Holland felt the blow. Multitudes were precipitated into poverty, at least, their only possessions consisted in a few bulbs—the representations at once of the speculator’s thoughtlessness and his woe. The result of the folly was now manifest, and the madness of what was nothing but gambling, showed its bitter fruits. Merchants and their families who had lived all their lives in independence and luxury, were reduced to beggary by this mania for gold.

THE ONLY SAFE GUIDE.

Amid these calamities, the help of man was found to be signally vain, THE ONLY
SAFE GUIDE. and those who had forgotten to take the Bible into the Counting-house, and the Market-place, were left to reap as they had sowed. Every effort was made to arrest the tide of ruin. Law was appealed to. The governing power of the nation was addressed, but all in vain. The gourd had withered, the refuge of lies had fallen, and not a few were buried in the ruins. The trade of Holland was prostrated for a time, and some of its merchant princes never recovered from the shock.

THE REAL SOURCE OF WEALTH.

It was by such a mercantile crash, then, that He who rules among the nations protested against the folly, or the sin of such gambling. It was proved, upon a national scale, that men cannot trample on the wisdom which comes from above, and prosper; and over the whole transaction, the eye of faith can read many a text inscribed in letters of light, we learn how much Commerce would be aided throughout her extensive empire, were her measures regulated by the mind, and directed to the objects of God. “He that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent.” THE REAL
SOURCE
OF
WEALTH. “Trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, and in measure.” “By humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches, and honour, and life.” “Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have; for He hath said, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’”—These and many other passages of the Word, proclaim the folly of extinguishing the lamp, and yet hoping to walk in the light. He who shall really prosper in such a path, will be the first in all the world’s history; but his prosperity will rest upon the ruins of truth, and justice—of all that is pure, and lovely, and of good report.

THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME.

But this appears after all, to have been a mere hallucination. It may be reckoned the dictate of capricious fashion, rather than a manifestation of the true mercantile spirit. Let us turn, then, to another illustration, and we find it ready in the Mississippi Scheme of France, THE
MISSISSIPPI
SCHEME. which was begun in 1716, and continued till 1723. Of all the wild speculations which have first duped and then ruined men, this ranks among the foremost. It was projected by a man who spent an ample fortune by his prodigality, and then adopted a gambler’s life, the last resort of many a fallen spirit. He first ruined a young English lady and then slew her brother in a duel, for which he was obliged to flee from his native country. Amsterdam, Venice, and Genoa, became in succession his asylum. From each of these, however, he was banished as a dangerous adventurer; and after fourteen years of friendless wandering, he at last secured the patronage of the Duke of Orleans, while Regent of France, about the year 1716.

Such was the unprincipled and profligate man employed to launch the Mississippi Scheme. He began his career in Paris by establishing a bank, which aided in restoring the drooping commerce of France to some measure of activity. Success in one enterprise[T-11] prepared the way for another, and Law devised the scheme which has given such bad notoriety to his name, and was the occasion of a ruin so wide-spread that only Omniscience knows it. A French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi occupied lands which were supposed to teem with gold; and, on that supposition, men who knew of no better riches than those of earth, rushed into a wild and visionary scheme. The Regent sanctioned the undertaking, and notes were issued to the amount of one thousand millions of livres.[25] One hundred and twenty per cent. of profit were promised upon all investments; and the baseless proposal so captivated men who were willingly fascinated, that at least three hundred thousand applications were made for fifty thousand shares. The titled, from the right hand of royalty downward, engaged in the scramble; and their equipages blocked up the streets from day to day, as they waited in feverish anxiety to know the result of their application for a chance of sharing in the fabulous wealth.—It is known that when one maniac has committed suicide in any particular way—for example, by precipitation from the summit of a tower—others morbidly follow his example; and one is irresistibly reminded of that development of mania while tracing the history of the Mississippi Scheme.

THE POWER OF PASSION.

But, after all, it was still only in its infancy. The Regent created three hundred thousand additional shares;[26] and so grasping were even the coroneted gamblers of Paris, that three times that number would have been purchased had the scheme been extended so far. THE POWER
OF PASSION. The pressure for shares became so great, that a number of persons were crushed to death in the crowd. Property suddenly rose in value, till it was worth twelve or fifteen times as much as it had been a brief period before; and so unwearied were these devotees of Mammon, that the streets had to be cleared at night by the soldiery. For a time, even the gaieties of Paris were suspended; and all the energies, the earnestness, and ardour of its people, were turned into one absorbing channel—the passion for gold lying buried, they believed, in the lands around the mouth of the Mississippi!