The author analyzed the nature of relationship of man with the abundance of nature, methods of adaptation, and the contrast between the forces of nature and human efforts, as well as the reasons for the everlasting poverty of the population as presented in the Maksimov's essays. According to the writer's logic the notion of "abundance" was, first, introduced from the outside, and second, construed by the native attitude of the personages themselves to their environment, where not the least role was played by the notions of measure and immensity, which were distorted as a result of the abundance of the natural resources. The article made an attempt to explain the stepwise process of transition from poverty to abundance and generosity as opposed to the accumulative process.