The Five Laws of Gold

I. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not
less than
one-tenth of his earngs to create an estate for his future and that of his family.
II. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it
profitable
employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field.
III. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the
advice of
men wise in its handling.
IV. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with
which
he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep.
V. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth
the
alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience
and romantic
desires in investment.
" 'These are the five laws of gold as written by my father. I do proclaim them as of greater value
than gold itself, as I will show by the continuance of my tale.'
"He again faced his father. 'I have told thee of the depth of poverty and despair to which my
inexperience brought me.
" 'However, there is no chain of disasters that will not come to an end. Mine came when I
secured employment managing a crew of slaves working upon the new outer wall of the city. "
'Profiting from my knowledge of the first law of gold, I saved a copper from my first earnings,
adding to it at every opportunity until I had a piece of silver. It was a slow procedure, for one
must live.
I did spend grudgingly, I admit, because I was determined to earn back before the ten years were
over
as much gold as you, my father, had given to me.
" 'One day the slave master, with whom I had become quite friendly, said to me: "Thou art a
thrifty youth who spends not wantonly what he earns. Hast thou gold put by that is not earning?"
"
'Yes,' I replied, 'It is my greatest desire to accumulate gold to replace that which my father gave