[264] Orig. and Singer read _wordlye_.
[265] Give attention.
[266] "The covetous man is servaunt and nat mayster vnto riches: and the
waster will nat longe be mayster therof. The one is possessed and doth
nat possesse; and the other within a shorte whyle leueth the possession
of riches."--Erasmus _De Contemptu Mundi_, 1533, fol. 17 (Paynel's
translation). So also, in the _Rule of Reason_, 1551, 8vo, Wilson
says:--"Is a covetous man poore or not? I may thus reason with my self.
Why should a couetous man be called poore, what affinitie is betwixt
them twoo? Marie, in this poynct thei bothe agree, that like as the
poore man ever lacketh and desireth to have, so the covetous manne ever
lacketh, wantyng the use of that whiche he hath, and desireth styl to
have." "To a covetous ma he (Pythagoras) sayde:--"O fole, thy ryches are
lost upon the, and are very pouertie."--Baldwin's _Treatise of Morall
Phylosophie_, 1547.
+ _How Denise the tirant serued a couetous man._ lxxix.
+ It was shewed to Denise the tyran, that a couetous man of the cite had
hyd a great some of money in the grounde, and lyued moste wretchedly:
wherfore he sente for the man, and commaunded him to go dyg vp the
money, and so to deliuer it vnto him. The man obeyed, and delyuered vnto
the tyran all the golde and treasure that he hadde, saue a small some,
that he priuelye kept a syde: where with he wente in to an other cite,
and forsoke Syracuse: and there bought a lytell lande, where vpon he
lyued. Whan the tyran vnderstode that he hadde so done, he sent for him
agayne; and whan he was come, the tyran sayde to him: syth thou haste
lerned nowe to vse well thy goodes, and nat to kepe them vnprofytably, I
wyll restore them all to the agayne. And so he dyd.
+ _Of the olde man, that quengered[267] the boy oute of the apletree
with stones._ lxxx.
+ As an olde man walked on a tyme in his orcherd he loked vp, and sawe a
boye sytte in a tree, stealynge his apples; whom he entreated with fayre
wordes to come downe, and let his apples alone. And whan the olde man
sawe, that the boye cared nat for him, by cause of his age, and set
noughte by his wordes, he sayde: I haue harde saye, that nat onlye in
wordes, but also in herbes, shulde be greatte vertue. Wherfore he
plucked vp herbes, and beganne to throwe them at the boye, wherat the
boye laughed hartelye, and thought that the olde man hadde ben mad, to
thynke to driue him out of the tree with casting of herbes. Than the
olde man sayde: well, seynge that nother wordes nor herbes haue no
vertue agaynste the stealer of my goodes, I wylle proue what stones
wylle do, in whiche, I haue harde men saye, is great vertue; and so he
gathered his lappe full of stones, and threwe them at the boye, and
compelled hym to come downe, and renne awaye.
This tale sheweth, that they, that bene wyse, proue many wayes, before
they arme them.