One of those happy accidents which sometimes make men emperors and kings, had made me, perhaps, the richest subject of Europe.

With this polar star of theory shining before my eyes, and with practical means so ample, it would have been clearly my own fault had I not steered my bark into the right haven.

If he who had the heaviest investments was the most likely to love his fellows, there could be no great difficulty for one in my situation to take the lead in philanthropy.

It is true that with superficial observers the instance of my own immediate ancestor might be supposed to form an exception, or rather an objection, to the theory.

So far from this being the case, however, it proves the very reverse.