in auro bibitur venenum; fear of poyson in the one, security in the other. A poor man is able to write, to speak his mind, to do his own business himself; locuples mittit parasitum, saith 'Philostratus; a rich man employes a parasite, and as the maior of a city speaks by the town-clark, or by Mr. recorder, when he cannot express himself. 2 Nonius the senator hath a purple coat as stiffe with jewels, as his minde is full of vices; rings on his fingers worth 20000 sestercies; and as 'Perox the Persian king, an union in his eare worth 1001 weight of gold: 'Cleopatra hath whole boars and sheep served up to her table at once, drinks jewels dissolved, 40000 sestercies in value; but to what end? 5 Num, tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quæris Doth a man that is dry desire to drink in gold? doth not a cloth sute become him as well, and keep him as warm, as all their silks, satins, damasks, taffaties and tissues? Is not homespun cloth as great a preservative against cold, as a coat of Tartar lambs wooll died in grain, or a gown of giants beards? Nero, saith Sueton, never put on one garment twice; and thou hast scarce one to put on: what's the difference: one's sick, the other sound: such is the whole tenor of their lives; and that which is the consummation and upshot of all, death itself makes the greatest difference. One, like an hen, feeds on the dunghill all his daies, but is served up at last to his lords table; the other as a falcon, is fed with partridge and pigeons, and carried on his masters fist, but when he dyes, is flung to the muckhil, and there lies. The rich man lives, like Dives, jovially here on earth, temulentus divitiis, make the best of it; and boasts himself in the multitude of his riches (Psal. 49. 6. 11): he thinks his house, called after his own name, shall continue for ever; but he perisheth like a beast (ver. 20): his way utters his folly (ver. 13): male parta male dilabuntur; like sheep, they lye in the grave (14). Puncto descendunt ad infernum: they spend their dayes in wealth, and go suddenly down to hell (Job 21. 13). For all physicians and medicines inforcing nature, a sowning wife, families complaints, friends tears, dirges, masses, nanias, funerals, for all orations, counterfeit hired acclamations, eulogiums, epitaphs, herses, heralds, black mourners, solemnities, obelisks, and mausolean tombs, (if he have them at least) he, like a hog, goes to hell, with a guilty conscience 1 Epist. vit. ejus. 2 Plin. lib. 57. cap 6. 3 Zonaras, 3. annal. 4 Plutarch. 5 Hor. Ser. lib. 1. Sat. 2. 6 Cap. 30. Nullam vestem bis induit. 7 Ad generum Cereris sine cæde et sanguine pauci Descendunt reges, et siccâ morte tyranni. (propter hos dilatavit infernus os suum) and a poor mans curse: his memory stinks like the snuffe of a candle when it is put out; scurril libels and infamous obloquies accompany him: when as poor Lazarus is Dei sacrarium, the temple of God, lives and dies in true devotion, hath no more attendants, but his own innocency, the heaven a tomb, desires to be dissolved, buried in his mothers lap, and hath a company of angels ready to convey his soul into Abrahams bosom: he leaves an everlasting and a sweet memory behind him. Crassus and Sylla are indeed still recorded, but not so much for their wealth, as for their victories, Croesus for his end, Solomon for his wisdome. In a word, to get wealth is a great trouble, anxiety to keep, grief to lose it. 2 3 Quid dignum stolidis mentibus imprecer? Et, cum falsa gravi mole paraverint, Tum vera cognoscant bona. But consider all those other unknown, concealed happinesses, which a poor man hath (I call them unknown, because they be not acknowledged in the worlds esteem, or so taken): O fortunatos nimium, bona si sua nôrint! 5 6 4 happy they are in the mean time, if they would take notice of it, make use, or apply it to themselves. A poor man wise is better than a foolish king (Eccl. 2. 13). Poverty is the way to heaven, the mistress of philosophy, the mother of religion, vertue, sobriety, sister of innocency, and an upright mind. How many such encomiums might I adde out of the fathers, philosophers, orators! It troubles many that they are poor; they accompt of it as a great plague, a curse, a sign of Gods hatred, ipsum scelus, damn'd villany it self, a disgrace, shame and reproach; but to whom, or why? If fortune hath envyed me wealth, thieves have robbed me, my father has not left me such revenues as others have, that I am a younger brother, basely born, 7 cui sine luce genus, surdumque parentum Nomen, of mean parentage, a dirt daubers son, am I therefore to be blamed? an eagle, a bull, a lion, is not rejected for his poverty; 1 God shall deliver his soule from the power of the grave, Psal. 49. 15. 2 Contempl. Idiot. cap. 37. Divitiarum acquisitio magni laboris, possessio magni timoris, amissio magni doloris. 3 Boëthius, de consol. phil. 1. 3. 4 Austin, in Ps. 76. Omnis philosophiæ magistra, ad cœlum via. 5 Bonæ mentis soror paupertas. Pædagoga pietatis, sobria, pia mater, cultu simplex, habitu secura, consilio benesuada. Apul. 7 Cardan. Opprobrium non est pau pertas: quod latro eripit, aut pater non reliquit, cur mihi vitio daretur, si fortuna divitias invidit? non aquilæ, non, &c. 3 and why should a man? 'Tis 'fortunæ telum, non culpa, fortunes fault, not mine. Good Sir, I am a servant, (to use Senecas words) howsoever your poor friend; a servant, and yet your chamberfellow, and, if you consider better of it, your fellow servant. I am thy drudge in the worlds eyes, yet, in Gods sight, peradventure thy better, my soule is more precious, and I dearer unto him. Etiam servi Diis curæ sunt, as Evangelus at large proves in Macrobius; the meanest servant is most precious in his sight. Thou art an Epicure, I am a good Christian: thou art many parasanges before me in means, favour, wealth, honour, Claudius his Narcissus, Neros Massa, Domitians Parthenius, a favourite, a golden slave; thou coverest thy floors with marble, thy roofs with gold, thy wals with statues, fine pictures, curious hangings, &c. what of all this? calcas opes, &c. what's all this to true happiness? I live and breathe under that glorious heaven, that august Capitol of nature, enjoy the brightness of stars, that cleer light of sun and moon, those infinite creatures, plants, birds, beasts, fishes, herbs, all that sea and land affords, far surpassing all that art and opulentia can give. I am free, and, which Seneca said of Rome, culmen liberos texit, sub marmore et auro postea servitus habitavit; thou hast Amalthea cornu, plenty, pleasure, the world at will; I am despicable and poor; but a word overshot, a blow in choler, a game at tables, a loss at sea, a sudden fire, the princes dislike, a little sickness, &c. may make us equal in an instant: howsoever, take thy time, triumph and insult a while; cinis æquat, as Alphonsus said; death will equalize us all at last. I live sparingly, in the mean time, am clad homely, fare hardly; is this a reproach? am I the worse for it? am I contemptible for it? am I to be reprehended? A learned man in 'Nevisanus, was taken down for sitting amongst gentlemen; but he replyed, my nobility is about the head, yours declines to the taile; and they were silent. Let them mock, scoff, and revile; 'tis not thy scorn, but his that made thee so: he that mocketh the poor, reproacheth him that made him (Prov. 11. 5.); and he that rejoyceth at affliction, shall not be unpunished. for the rest, the poorer thou art, the happier thou art; ditior est, at non melior, saith Epictetus; he is richer, not better, then thou art, not so free from lust, envy, hatred, ambition. 4 6 'Tully. 2 Epist. 74. Servus, summe homo; servus sum, immo contubernalis; servus sum, at humilis amicus; immo conservus, si cogitaveris. 3 Epist. 66. et 90. 4 Panormitan. rebus gestis Alph. 5 Lib. 4 num. 218. Quidam deprehensus quod sederet loco nobilium, mea nobilitas, ait, est circa caput, vestra declinat ad caudam. 6 Tanto beatior es, quanto collectior. Beatus ille, qui, procul negotiis, Happy he, in that he is 'freed from the tumults of the world, he seeks no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies not, temporizeth not, but lives privately, and well contented with his estate; Nec spes corde avidas, nec curam pascit inanem, He is not troubled with state matters, whether kingdomes thrive better by succession or election; whether monarchies should be mixt, temperate or absolute; the house of Ottomons and Austria is all one to him; he enquires not after colonies or new discoveries; whether Peter were at Rome, or Constantines donation be of force; what comets or new stars signifie, whether the earth stand or move, there be a new world in the moon, or infinite worlds, &c. He is not touched with fear of invasions, factions, or emulations; 2 Felix ille animi, Divisque simillimus ipsis, An happy soule, and like to God himself, 5 A secure, quiet, blissful state he hath, if he could acknowledge it. But here is the misery, that he will not take notice of it; he repines at rich mens wealth, brave hangings, dainty fare as Simonides objecteth to Hieron, he hath all the pleasures of the world; in lectis eburneis dormit, vinum phialis bibit, optimis unguentis delibuitur; he knows not the affliction of Joseph, stretching himself on ivory beds, and singing to the sound of the viol; and it troubles him that he hath not the like; there is a difference, (he grumbles) between laplolly and phesants, to tumble i'th'straw and lye in a down bed, betwixt wine and water, a cottage and a palace. He hates 1 Non amoribus inservit, non appetit honores: et, qualitercunque relictus satis habet, hominem se esse meminit; invidet nemini, neminem despicit, neminem miratur, sermonibus malignis non attendit aut alitur. Plinius. 2 Politia nus, in Rustico. 3 Gyges, regno Lydia inflatus, sciscitatum misit Apollinem, an quis mortalium se felicior esset? Aglaïum, Arcadum pauperrimum, Apollo prætulit, qui terminos agri sui nunquam excesserat, rure suo contentus. Val. lib. 1. c. 7. Hor. Hæc est Vita solutorum miserâ ambitione, gravique. 5 Amos, 6. 2 1 nature (as Pliny characterizeth him) that she hath made him lower then a god, and is angry with the gods that any man goes before him; and although he hath received much, yet (as Seneca followes it) he thinks it an injury that he hath no more, and is so far from giving thanks for his tribuneship, that he complains that he is not prætor; neither doth that please him except he may be consul. Why is he not a prince, why not a monarch, why not an emperour? Why should one man have so much more than his fellowes, one have all, another nothing? Why should one man be a slave or drudge to another? one surfeit, another starve, one live at ease, another labour without any hope of better fortune? Thus they grumble, mutter, and repine, not considering that inconstancy of humane affairs, judicially conferring one condition with another, or well weighing their own present estate. What they are now, thou mayst shortly be; and what thou art, they shall likely be. Expect a little; confer future and times past with the present; see the event, and comfort thyself with it. It is as well to be discerned in commonwealths, cities, families, as in private mens estates. Italy was once lord of the world; Rome, the queen of cities, vaunted herself of two 'myriades of inhabitants; now that all commanding country is possessed by petty princes; of Rome small village in respect. Greece, of old the seat of civility, mother of sciences and humanity, now forlorn, the nurse of barbarism, a den of theeves. Germany then, saith Tacitus, was incult and horrid, now full of magnificent cities: Athens, Corinth, Carthage, (how flourishing cities!) now buried in their own ruines; corvorum, ferarum, aprorum, et bestiarum lustra, like so many wildernesses, a receptacle of wild beasts. Venice, a poor fisher-town; Paris, London, small cottages in Cæsars time, now most noble emporiums. Valois, Plantagenet, and Scaliger, how fortunate families! how likely to continue! now quite extinguished and rooted out. He stands aloft to day, full of favour, wealth, honour, and prosperity, in the top of Fortunes wheele; to morrow in prison, worse then nothing; his son's a begger. Thou art a poor servile drudge, fex populi, a very slave; thy son may come to be a prince, with Maximinus, Agathocles, &c. a senator, a generall of an army; thou standest bare to him now, workest for him, drudgest for him and his, takest an almes of him stay but a little, and his next heire peradventure shall consume all with riot, be degraded, thou exalted, and he shall 1 Præfat. lib. 7. Odit naturam, quod infra Deos sit; irascitur Diis, quod quis illi antecedat. 2 De irâ, cap. 31. lib. 3. Etsi multum acceperit, injuriam putat plura non accepisse; non agit pro tribunatu gratias, sed queritur quod non sit ad præturam perductus; neque hæc grata, si desit consulatus. 3 Lips. admir. 4 Of some 900000 inhabitants now. |