24 - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Abstract

ONCE upon a time there was a great and successful merchant who lived in the prosperous commercial state of Urbania. He filled with success the role of trader and organizer of production, for he invariably dealt thoughtfully with the difficult and vital problems of his business, studying the broader movements of the markets, the yet undeveloped results of current events at home and abroad, and contriving to improve the organization of the internal and external relations of his business. By his bold and tireless enterprise, he had reaped a rich harvest of that material reward which is the steadiest motive to ordinary business work. Yet in the accumulation of his wealth he was, like many traders, often stimulated more by the hope of victory over his rivals than by the desire to add something to his fortune; moreover, like everyone who is worth anything, he carried his higher nature with him into business, and there, as elsewhere, he was influenced by his personal affections, by his conceptions of duty, and his reverence for high ideals.