What did Stephen Jay Gould discover?

Will you tell the story of your life since you came here? 

An Interview with Spirit Jay Gould

I had no really substantial views of what this life would be before I came. I was so hurried―I had no time for study on this subject. I wanted to accumulate property. It became a mania with me, so I came over here like a child with all of my wealth left behind.  And when the little step from that life to this was taken―when I awoke to the full knowledge that I was really what the world calls dead, I was surprised, yet, in a way, pained. 

My desires carried me back to earth. 

I wanted to see how affairs were getting on. I saw things neglected, which needed attention, but I could not make them hear one word of advice. At last, a longing desire came to me to know what the world said of me, and I listened to some of the notices, as read from earthly papers. They all spoke of my wonderful business qualifications, of my extreme good fortune in turning everything into money, of how rich I had left my children, but not any thought of what good I had tried to do. 

Mr Bowles, I was hurt a little, for I was not all selfishness. 

I had never heralded my gifts―I had rather told the recipients to say nothing about their gifts. I had not given largely to religious organisations, for I did not have much sympathy for them, but if you look around this upper country, you will see those who will bless Jay Gould for what he did for them, and in earth life, I can point to homes that I helped to build for the poor. I do not say this in praise of myself, only in justification of myself. 

I would not want the world to believe that the fountain of goodness was entirely dried up in my nature, for it was not so. But I can see now where I erred. I did not enter enough into the spirit of reform and charity. While preoccupied with other subjects, which seemed of such great importance, I did not stop to study into public needs and public questions except as they related to finance, and thus I crippled my soul. 

I can raise my voice with you, Mr Bowles, against monopolies. I see the bearing they have on the world at large. Oh! if men could only know how to get rich in a way that riches would last, I should be glad. 

When I first came here, I was so eager to learn. I wanted to go back to earth life, and when I was attracted to scenes, which harrowed my heart or listened to stories of wretchedness such as I never dreamed existed, I would raise my voice, and say―I will give, but I found I had nothing to give―empty pockets―I went over the old ground from New York to Missouri. I looked at agents who had been long in my employ. I tried to impress them with their carelessness, but they would not listen. I went to my own. I saw sorrow there, but still I could not reach them, so that they would in the least fulfill even mechanically my desires.

As the years have passed, a band of us have touched the brain of one of my children and we have helped to make her life beautiful in the extreme, and I know, Mr Bowles, she is doing good. Her heart is beating for humanity. Her work is so well chosen and effective. My precious Helen, what may I not hope from you! And then I will reach the others―Oh! they do not realise the life of sacrifice I lived to accumulate that money, which is going out of their hands so easily. They do not know the power I felt from this side. 

I did not know it then, but now I find I had those about me whose accumulating spirit made me think far more of wealth than I otherwise should. 

As I think it over now, I see that at times instead of the money, it was more a desire to keep things moving―to turn the key of business life and see its vast machinery set in motion―to feel the heartbeats of the great mass of men who worked from early morn until weary night to bring in something for me.

Oh! that life was full of varying moods, but still surrounding all was a dogged determination to conquer fate―to stand at the head of the world of finance―to wield supreme power in that realm.

How worse than idle were my ambitions? 

The Reaper came before the grain was ripe, and with my life unripened by the holiest of earthly experiences, I am here to finish up.