4. Prov. xvii. 6.
160 ST. AUGUSTINE your hearts, if the word of God hath settled in you, if it hath found rest in you, do this, my Brethren; do not think you are suffering loss if you shall do it; it is a great gain if you shall do what
I am saying. "I have lost twenty pieces of silver,
I have lost two hundred, five hundred." What hast thou lost? They were lost out of thine house; another lost them, not thou. The earth is common, ye are in one house, travellers both in this world, ye have entered into the one inn of this road. He laid it by, he forgot it; it fell from him, thou hast found it elsewhere.
if we look carefully at what is written: "The whole worid is the wealth of the faithful man, but the unfaithful one has not a penny,"* do we not prove that those who seem to rejoice in lawfully acquired gains, and do not know how to use them, are really in possession of other men's property? Certainly, what is lawfully possessed is not another's property, but 'lawfully' means justly and justly means rightly. He who uses his wealth badly possesses it wrongfully, and wrongful possession means that it is another's property. You see, then, how many there are who ought to make restitution of another's goods, although those to whom restitution is due may be few; wherever they are, their claim to just possession is in proportion to their indifference to wealth. Obviously, no one possesses justice unlawfully: whoever does not love it does not have it; but money is wrongly possessed by bad men while good men who love it least have the best right to it. In this life the wrong of evil possessors is endured and among them certain laws are established which are called c. Letters, CLIII (Schopp, III, p. 302). 4. Prov. xvii. 6.