hath, by which you may know him from a true gentleman. Many errors and
obliquities are on both sides, noble, ignoble, factis, natis; yet still
in all callings, as some degenerate, some are well deserving, and most
worthy of their honours. And as Busbequius said of Suleiman the
Magnificent, he was tanto dignus imperio, worthy of that great empire.
Many meanly descended are most worthy of their honour, politice
nobiles, and well deserve it. Many of our nobility so born (which one
said of Hephaestion, Ptolemeus, Seleucus, Antigonus, &c., and the rest
of Alexander's followers, they were all worthy to be monarchs and
generals of armies) deserve to be princes. And I am so far forth of
[3676]Sesellius's mind, that they ought to be preferred (if capable)
before others, as being nobly born, ingenuously brought up, and from
their infancy trained to all manner of civility. For learning and
virtue in a nobleman is more eminent, and, as a jewel set in gold is
more precious, and much to be respected, such a man deserves better
than others, and is as great an honour to his family as his noble
family to him. In a word, many noblemen are an ornament to their order:
many poor men's sons are singularly well endowed, most eminent, and
well deserving for their worth, wisdom, learning, virtue, valour,
integrity; excellent members and pillars of a commonwealth. And
therefore to conclude that which I first intended, to be base by birth,
meanly born is no such disparagement. Et sic demonstratur, quod erat
demonstrandum.
MEMB. III.
_Against Poverty and Want, with such other Adversities_.
One of the greatest miseries that can befall a man, in the world's
esteem, is poverty or want, which makes men steal, bear false witness,
swear, forswear, contend, murder and rebel, which breaketh sleep, and
causeth death itself. οὐδὲν πενίας βαρύτερον ἐστὶ φορτίον, no burden
(saith [3677]Menander) so intolerable as poverty: it makes men
desperate, it erects and dejects, census honores, census amicitias;
money makes, but poverty mars, &c. and all this in the world's esteem:
yet if considered aright, it is a great blessing in itself, a happy
estate, and yields no cause of discontent, or that men should therefore
account themselves vile, hated of God, forsaken, miserable,
unfortunate. Christ himself was poor, born in a manger, and had not a
house to hide his head in all his life, [3678]lest any man should make
poverty a judgment of God, or an odious estate. And as he was himself,
so he informed his Apostles and Disciples, they were all poor, Prophets
poor, Apostles poor, (Act. iii. Silver and gold have I none.) As
sorrowing (saith Paul) and yet always rejoicing; as having nothing, and
yet possessing all things, 1 Cor. vi. 10. Your great Philosophers have
been voluntarily poor, not only Christians, but many others. Crates
Thebanus was adored for a God in Athens, [3679]a nobleman by birth,
many servants he had, an honourable attendance, much wealth, many
manors, fine apparel; but when he saw this, that all the wealth of the
world was but brittle, uncertain and no whit availing to live well, he
flung his burden into the sea, and renounced his estate. Those Curii
and Fabricii will be ever renowned for contempt of these fopperies,
wherewith the world is so much affected. Amongst Christians I could
reckon up many kings and queens, that have forsaken their crowns and
fortunes, and wilfully abdicated themselves from these so much esteemed
toys; [3680]many that have refused honours, titles, and all this vain
pomp and happiness, which others so ambitiously seek, and carefully
study to compass and attain. Riches I deny not are God's good gifts,
and blessings; and honor est in honorante, honours are from God; both
rewards of virtue, and fit to be sought after, sued for, and may well
be possessed: yet no such great happiness in having, or misery in
wanting of them. Dantur quidem bonis, saith Austin, ne quis mala
aestimet: mails autem ne quis nimis bona, good men have wealth that we
should not think, it evil; and bad men that they should not rely on or
hold it so good; as the rain falls on both sorts, so are riches given
to good and bad, sed bonis in bonum, but they are good only to the
godly. But [3681]compare both estates, for natural parts they are not
unlike; and a beggar's child, as [3682]Cardan well observes, is no whit
inferior to a prince's, most part better; and for those accidents of
fortune, it will easily appear there is no such odds, no such
extraordinary happiness in the one, or misery in the other. He is rich,
wealthy, fat; what gets he by it? pride, insolency, lust, ambition,
cares, fears, suspicion, trouble, anger, emulation, and many filthy
diseases of body and mind. He hath indeed variety of dishes, better
fare, sweet wine, pleasant sauce, dainty music, gay clothes, lords it
bravely out, &c., and all that which Misillus admired in [3683]Lucian;
but with them he hath the gout, dropsies, apoplexies, palsies, stone,
pox, rheums, catarrhs, crudities, oppilations, [3684]melancholy, &c.,
lust enters in, anger, ambition, according to [3685]Chrysostom, the
sequel of riches is pride, riot, intemperance, arrogancy, fury, and all
irrational courses.
[3686]———turpi fregerunt saecula luxu
Divitiae molles———
with their variety of dishes, many such maladies of body and mind get
in, which the poor man knows not of. As Saturn in [3687]Lucian answered
the discontented commonalty, (which because of their neglected Saturnal
feasts in Rome, made a grievous complaint and exclamation against rich
men) that they were much mistaken in supposing such happiness in
riches; [3688]you see the best (said he) but you know not their several
gripings and discontents: they are like painted walls, fair without,
rotten within: diseased, filthy, crazy, full of intemperance's effects;
[3689]and who can reckon half? if you but knew their fears, cares,
anguish of mind and vexation, to which they are subject, you would
hereafter renounce all riches.
[3690]O si pateant pectora divitum,
Quantos intus sublimis agit
Fortuna metus? Brutia Coro
Pulsante fretum mitior unda est.
O that their breasts were but conspicuous,
How full of fear within, how furious?
The narrow seas are not so boisterous.
Yea, but he hath the world at will that is rich, the good things of the
earth: suave est de magno tollere acervo, (it is sweet to draw from a
great heap) he is a happy man, [3691]adored like a god, a prince, every
man seeks to him, applauds, honours, admires him. He hath honours
indeed, abundance of all things; but (as I said) withal [3692]pride,
lust, anger, faction, emulation, fears, cares, suspicion enter with his
wealth; for his intemperance he hath aches, crudities, gouts, and as
fruits of his idleness, and fullness, lust, surfeiting and drunkenness,
all manner of diseases: pecuniis augetur improbitas, the wealthier, the
more dishonest. [3693]He is exposed to hatred, envy, peril and treason,
fear of death, degradation, &c. 'tis lubrica statio et proxima
praecipitio, and the higher he climbs, the greater is his fall.
[3694]———celsae graviore casu
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos
Fulgura montes, the lightning commonly sets on fire the highest towers;
[3695]in the more eminent place he is, the more subject to fall.
Rumpitur innumeris arbos uberrima pomis,
Et subito nimiae praecipitantur opes.
As a tree that is heavy laden with fruit breaks her own boughs, with
their own greatness they ruin themselves: which Joachimus Camerarius
hath elegantly expressed in his 13 Emblem cent. 1. Inopem se copia
fecit. Their means is their misery, though they do apply themselves to
the times, to lie, dissemble, collogue and flatter their lieges, obey,
second his will and commands as much as may be, yet too frequently they
miscarry, they fat themselves like so many hogs, as [3696]Aeneas
Sylvius observes, that when they are full fed, they may be devoured by
their princes, as Seneca by Nero was served, Sejanus by Tiberius, and
Haman by Ahasuerus: I resolve with Gregory, potestas culminis, est
tempestas mentis; et quo dignitas altior, casus gravior, honour is a
tempest, the higher they are elevated, the more grievously depressed.
For the rest of his prerogatives which wealth affords, as he hath more
his expenses are the greater. When goods increase, they are increased
that eat them; and what good cometh to the owners, but the beholding
thereof with the eyes? Eccles. iv. 10.
[3697]Millia frumenti tua triverit area centum,
Non tuus hinc capiet venter plus quam meus———
an evil sickness, Solomon calls it, and reserved to them for an evil,
12 verse. They that will be rich fall into many fears and temptations,
into many foolish and noisome lusts, which drown men in perdition. 1
Tim. vi. 9. Gold and silver hath destroyed many, Ecclus. viii. 2.
divitia saeculi sunt laquei diaboli: so writes Bernard; worldly wealth
is the devil's bait: and as the Moon when she is fuller of light is
still farthest from the Sun, the more wealth they have, the farther
they are commonly from God. (If I had said this of myself, rich men
would have pulled me to pieces; but hear who saith, and who seconds it,
an Apostle) therefore St. James bids them weep and howl for the
miseries that shall come upon them; their gold shall rust and canker,
and eat their flesh as fire, James v. 1, 2, 3. I may then boldly
conclude with [3698]Theodoret, quotiescunque divitiis affluentem, &c.
As often as you shall see a man abounding in wealth, qui gemmis bibit
et Serrano dormit in ostro, and naught withal, I beseech you call him
not happy, but esteem him unfortunate, because he hath many occasions
offered to live unjustly; on the other side, a poor man is not
miserable, if he be good, but therefore happy, that those evil
occasions are taken from him.
[3699]Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum; rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti,
Duramque callet pauperiem pati,
Pejusque laetho flagitium timet.
He is not happy that is rich,
And hath the world at will,
But he that wisely can God's gifts
Possess and use them still:
That suffers and with patience
Abides hard poverty,
And chooseth rather for to die;
Than do such villainy.
Wherein now consists his happiness? what privileges hath he more than
other men? or rather what miseries, what cares and discontents hath he
not more than other men?
[3700]Non enim gazae, neque consularis
Summovet lictor miseros tumultus
Mentis, et curas laqueata circum
Tecta volantes.
Nor treasures, nor majors officers remove
The miserable tumults of the mind:
Or cares that lie about, or fly above
Their high-roofed houses, with huge beams combin'd.
'Tis not his wealth can vindicate him, let him have Job's inventory,
sint Craesi et Crassi licet, non hos Pactolus aureas undas agens,
eripiat unquum e miseriis, Croesus or rich Crassus cannot now command
health, or get himself a stomach. [3701]His worship, as Apuleius
describes him, in all his plenty and great provision, is forbidden to
eat, or else hath no appetite, (sick in bed, can take no rest, sore
grieved with some chronic disease, contracted with full diet and ease,
or troubled in mind) when as, in the meantime, all his household are
merry, and the poorest servant that he keeps doth continually feast.
'Tis Bracteata felicitas, as [3702] Seneca terms it, tinfoiled
happiness, infelix felicitas, an unhappy kind of happiness, if it be
happiness at all. His gold, guard, clattering of harness, and
fortifications against outward enemies, cannot free him from inward
fears and cares.
Reveraque metus hominum, curaeque sequaces
Nec metuunt fremitus armorum, aut ferrea tela,
Audacterque inter reges, regumque potentes
Versantur, neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro.
Indeed men still attending fears and cares
Nor armours clashing, nor fierce weapons fears:
With kings converse they boldly, and kings peers,
Fearing no flashing that from gold appears.
Look how many servants he hath, and so many enemies he suspects; for
liberty he entertains ambition; his pleasures are no pleasures; and
that which is worst, he cannot be private or enjoy himself as other men
do, his state is a servitude. [3703]A countryman may travel from
kingdom to kingdom, province to province, city to city, and glut his
eyes with delightful objects, hawk, hunt, and use those ordinary
disports, without any notice taken, all which a prince or a great man
cannot do. He keeps in for state, ne majestatis dignitas evilescat, as
our China kings, of Borneo, and Tartarian Chams, those aurea mancipia,
are said to do, seldom or never seen abroad, ut major sit hominum erga
se observantia, which the [3704]Persian kings so precisely observed of
old. A poor man takes more delight in an ordinary meal's meat, which he
hath but seldom, than they do with all their exotic dainties and
continual viands; Quippe voluptatem commendat rarior usus, 'tis the
rarity and necessity that makes a thing acceptable and pleasant.
Darius, put to flight by Alexander, drank puddle water to quench his
thirst, and it was pleasanter, he swore, than any wine or mead. All
excess, as[3705]Epictetus argues, will cause a dislike; sweet will be
sour, which made that temperate Epicurus sometimes voluntarily fast.
But they being always accustomed to the same[3706]dishes, (which are
nastily dressed by slovenly cooks, that after their obscenities never
wash their bawdy hands) be they fish, flesh, compounded, made dishes,
or whatsoever else, are therefore cloyed; nectar's self grows loathsome
to them, they are weary of all their fine palaces, they are to them but
as so many prisons. A poor man drinks in a wooden dish, and eats his
meat in wooden spoons, wooden platters, earthen vessels, and such
homely stuff: the other in gold, silver, and precious stones; but with
what success? in auro bibitur venenum, fear of poison 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
[3707]Philostratus, a rich man employs a parasite, and as the major of
a city, speaks by the town clerk, or by Mr. Recorder, when he cannot
express himself. [3708]Nonius the senator hath a purple coat as stiff
with jewels as his mind is full of vices; rings on his fingers worth
20,000 sesterces, and as[3709]Perox the Persian king, an union in his
ear worth one hundred pounds weight of gold:[3710]Cleopatra hath whole
boars and sheep served up to her table at once, drinks jewels
dissolved, 40,000 sesterces in value; but to what end?
[3711]Num tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris
Pocula?———
Doth a man that is adry desire to drink in gold? Doth not a cloth suit
become him as well, and keep him as warm, as all their silks, satins,
damasks, taffeties and tissues? Is not homespun cloth as great a
preservative against cold, as a coat of Tartar lamb's-wool, died in
grain, or a gown of giant's beards? Nero, saith[3712]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 a hen feeds on the
dunghill all his days, but is served up at last to his Lord's table;
the other as a falcon is fed with partridge and pigeons, and carried on
his master's fist, but when he dies is flung to the muck-hill, 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, Psalm xlix. 6. 11. he thinks his house called
after his own name, shall continue for ever; but he perisheth like a
beast, verse 20. his way utters his folly, verse 13. male parta, male
dilabuntur; like sheep they lie in the grave, verse 14. Puncto
descendunt ad infernum, they spend their days in wealth, and go
suddenly down to hell, Job xxi. 13. For all physicians and medicines
enforcing nature, a swooning wife, families' complaints, friends'
tears, dirges, masses, naenias, funerals, for all orations, counterfeit
hired acclamations, eulogiums, epitaphs, hearses, heralds, black
mourners, solemnities, obelisks, and Mausolean tombs, if he have them,
at least,[3713]he, like a hog, goes to hell with a guilty conscience
(propter hos dilatavit infernos os suum), and a poor man's curse; his
memory stinks like the snuff of a candle when it is put out; scurrilous
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 mother's lap, and hath a company
of[3714]Angels ready to convey his soul into Abraham's 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 wisdom. In a
word,[3715]to get wealth is a great trouble, anxiety to keep, grief to
lose it.
[3716]Quid dignum stolidis mentibus imprecer?
Opes, honores ambiant:
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 world's esteem, or so taken) O fortunatos nimium bona si sua
norint: happy they are in the meantime if they would take notice of it,
make use, or apply it to themselves. A poor man wise is better than a
foolish king, Eccles. ii. 13. [3717]Poverty is the way to heaven,
[3718]the mistress of philosophy, [3719]the mother of religion, virtue,
sobriety, sister of innocency, and an upright mind. How many such
encomiums might I add out of the fathers, philosophers, orators? It
troubles many that are poor, they account of it as a great plague,
curse, a sign of God's hatred, ipsum scelus, damned villainy itself, a
disgrace, shame and reproach; but to whom, or why? [3720]If fortune
hath envied me wealth, thieves have robbed me, my father have not left
me such revenues as others have, that I am a younger brother, basely
born,—cui sine luce genus, surdumque parentum—nomen, of mean parentage,
a dirt-dauber's son, am I therefore to be blamed? an eagle, a bull, a
lion is not rejected for his poverty, and why should a man? 'Tis
[3721]fortunae telum, non culpae, fortune's fault, not mine. Good Sir,
I am a servant, (to use [3722]Seneca's words) howsoever your poor
friend; a servant, and yet your chamber-fellow, and if you consider
better of it, your fellow-servant. I am thy drudge in the world's eyes,
yet in God's sight peradventure thy better, my soul is more precious,
and I dearer unto him. Etiam servi diis curae 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
parasangs before me in means, favour, wealth, honour, Claudius's
Narcissus, Nero's Massa, Domitian's Parthenius, a favourite, a golden
slave; thou coverest thy floors with marble, thy roofs with gold, thy
walls 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 clear light of sun and moon, those
infinite creatures, plants, birds, beasts, fishes, herbs, all that sea
and land afford, far surpassing all that art and opulentia can give. I
am free, and which [3723]Seneca said of Rome, culmen liberos texit, sub
marmore et auro postea servitus habitavit, thou hast Amaltheae 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 prince's dislike, a little sickness, &c., may make us
equal in an instant; howsoever take thy time, triumph and insult
awhile, cinis aequat, as [3724]Alphonsus said, death will equalise 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 [3725] Nevisanus was
taken down for sitting amongst gentlemen, but he replied, my nobility
is about the head, yours declines to the tail, 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.
xi. 5. and he that rejoiceth at affliction, shall not be unpunished.
For the rest, the poorer thou art, the happier thou art, ditior est, at
non melior, saith [3726]Epictetus, he is richer, not better than thou
art, not so free from lust, envy, hatred, ambition.
Beatus ille qui procul negotiis
Paterna rura bobus exercet suis.
Happy he, in that he is [3727]freed from the tumults of the world, he
seeks no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies not,
temporiseth not, but lives privately, and well contented with his
estate;
Nec spes corde avidas, nec curam pascit inanem
Securus quo fata cadant.
He is not troubled with state matters, whether kingdoms thrive better
by succession or election; whether monarchies should be mixed,
temperate, or absolute; the house of Ottomans and Austria is all one to
him; he inquires not after colonies or new discoveries; whether Peter
were at Rome, or Constantine's donation be of force; what comets or new
stars signify, 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;
[3728]Felix ille animi, divisque simillimus ipsis,
Quem non mordaci resplendens gloria fuco
Solicitat, non fastosi mala gaudia luxus,
Sed tacitos sinit ire dies, et paupere cultu
[3729] Exigit innocuae tranquilla silentia vitae.
A happy soul, and like to God himself,
Whom not vain glory macerates or strife.
Or wicked joys of that proud swelling pelf,
But leads a still, poor, and contented life.