But here is the misery, that he will not take notice of it; he repines
at rich men's wealth, brave hangings, dainty fare, as [3730]Simonides
objected to Hieron, he hath all the pleasures of the world, [3731]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 Pheasants, to tumble i' th' straw and lie in a
down bed, betwixt wine and water, a cottage and a palace. He hates
nature (as [3732]Pliny characterised him) that she hath made him lower
than a god, and is angry with the gods that any man goes before him;
and although he hath received much, yet (as [3733]Seneca follows it) he
thinks it an injury that he hath no more, and is so far from giving
thanks for his tribuneship, that he complains he is not praetor,
neither doth that please him, except he may be consul. Why is he not a
prince, why not a monarch, why not an emperor? Why should one man have
so much more than his fellows, 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 human 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, compare 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 men's estates. Italy was
once lord of the world, Rome the queen of cities, vaunted herself of
two [3734]myriads of inhabitants; now that all-commanding country is
possessed by petty princes, [3735]Rome a 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 thieves. Germany then,
saith Tacitus, was incult and horrid, now full of magnificent cities:
Athens, Corinth, Carthage, how flourishing cities, now buried in their
own ruins! 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 Caesar's 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 today, full of favour, wealth, honour, and prosperity, in
the top of fortune's wheel: tomorrow in prison, worse than nothing, his
son's a beggar. Thou art a poor servile drudge, Foex populi, a very
slave, thy son may come to be a prince, with Maximinus, Agathocles, &c.
a senator, a general of an army; thou standest bare to him now, workest
for him, drudgest for him and his, takest an alms of him: stay but a
little, and his next heir peradventure shall consume all with riot, be
degraded, thou exalted, and he shall beg of thee. Thou shalt be his
most honourable patron, he thy devout servant, his posterity shall run,
ride, and do as much for thine, as it was with [3736]Frisgobald and
Cromwell, it may be for thee. Citizens devour country gentlemen, and
settle in their seats; after two or three descents, they consume all in
riot, it returns to the city again.
[3737]———Novus incola venit;
Nam propriae telluris herum natura, neque illum.
Nec me, nec quenquam statuit; nos expulit ille:
Illum aut nequities, aut vafri inscitia juris.
———have we liv'd at a more frugal rate,
Since this new stranger seiz'd on our estate?
Nature will no perpetual heir assign,
Or make the farm his property or mine.
He turn'd us out: but follies all his own,
Or lawsuits and their knaveries yet unknown,
Or, all his follies and his lawsuits past,
Some long-liv'd heir shall turn him out at last.
A lawyer buys out his poor client, after a while his client's posterity
buy out him and his; so things go round, ebb and flow.
Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli
Dictus erat, nulli proprius, sed cedit in usum
Nunc mihi, nunc aliis;———
The farm, once mine, now bears Umbrenus' name;
The use alone, not property, we claim;
Then be not with your present lot depressed,
And meet the future with undaunted breast;
as he said then, ager cujus, quot habes Dominos? So say I of land,
houses, movables and money, mine today, his anon, whose tomorrow? In
fine, (as [3738]Machiavel observes) virtue and prosperity beget rest;
rest idleness; idleness riot; riot destruction from which we come again
to good laws; good laws engender virtuous actions; virtue, glory, and
prosperity; and 'tis no dishonour then (as Guicciardine adds) for a
flourishing man, city, or state to come to ruin, [3739]nor infelicity
to be subject to the law of nature. Ergo terrena calcanda, sitienda
coelestia, (therefore I say) scorn this transitory state, look up to
heaven, think not what others are, but what thou art: [3740]Qua parte
locatus es in re: and what thou shalt be, what thou mayst be. Do (I
say) as Christ himself did, when he lived here on earth, imitate him as
much as in thee lies. How many great Caesars, mighty monarchs,
tetrarchs, dynasties, princes lived in his days, in what plenty, what
delicacy, how bravely attended, what a deal of gold and silver, what
treasure, how many sumptuous palaces had they, what provinces and
cities, ample territories, fields, rivers, fountains, parks, forests,
lawns, woods, cells, &c.? Yet Christ had none of all this, he would
have none of this, he voluntarily rejected all this, he could not be
ignorant, he could not err in his choice, he contemned all this, he
chose that which was safer, better, and more certain, and less to be
repented, a mean estate, even poverty itself; and why dost thou then
doubt to follow him, to imitate him, and his apostles, to imitate all
good men: so do thou tread in his divine steps, and thou shalt not err
eternally, as too many worldlings do, that run on in their own
dissolute courses, to their confusion and ruin, thou shalt not do
amiss. Whatsoever thy fortune is, be contented with it, trust in him,
rely on him, refer thyself wholly to him. For know this, in conclusion,
Non est volentis nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei, 'tis not as men,
but as God will. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, bringeth low,
and exalteth (1 Sam. ii. ver. 7. 8), he lifteth the poor from the dust,
and raiseth the beggar from the dunghill, to set them amongst princes,
and make them inherit the seat of glory; 'tis all as he pleaseth, how,
and when, and whom; he that appoints the end (though to us unknown)
appoints the means likewise subordinate to the end.
Yea, but their present estate crucifies and torments most mortal men,
they have no such forecast, to see what may be, what shall likely be,
but what is, though not wherefore, or from whom, hoc anget, their
present misfortunes grind their souls, and an envious eye which they
cast upon other men's prosperities, Vicinumque pecus grandius uber
habet, how rich, how fortunate, how happy is he? But in the meantime he
doth not consider the other miseries, his infirmities of body and mind,
that accompany his estate, but still reflects upon his own false
conceived woes and wants, whereas if the matter were duly examined,
[3741]he is in no distress at all, he hath no cause to complain.
[3742]———tolle querelas,
Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppetit usus,
Then cease complaining, friend, and learn to live.
He is not poor to whom kind fortune grants,
Even with a frugal hand, what Nature wants.
he is not poor, he is not in need. [3743]Nature is content with bread
and water; and he that can rest satisfied with that, may contend with
Jupiter himself for happiness. In that golden age, [3744]somnos dedit
umbra salubres, potum quoque lubricus amnis, the tree gave wholesome
shade to sleep under, and the clear rivers drink. The Israelites drank
water in the wilderness; Samson, David, Saul, Abraham's servant when he
went for Isaac's wife, the Samaritan woman, and how many besides might
I reckon up, Egypt, Palestine, whole countries in the [3745]Indies,
that drank pure water all their lives. [3746]The Persian kings
themselves drank no other drink than the water of Chaospis, that runs
by Susa, which was carried in bottles after them, whithersoever they
went. Jacob desired no more of God, but bread to eat, and clothes to
put on in his journey, Gen. xxviii. 20. Bene est cui deus obtulit Parca
quod satis est manu; bread is enough [3747]to strengthen the heart. And
if you study philosophy aright, saith [3748] Maudarensis, whatsoever is
beyond this moderation, is not useful, but troublesome. [3749]Agellius,
out of Euripides, accounts bread and water enough to satisfy nature, of
which there is no surfeit, the rest is not a feast, but a riot.
[3750]S. Hierome esteems him rich that hath bread to eat, and a potent
man that is not compelled to be a slave; hunger is not ambitious, so
that it have to eat, and thirst doth not prefer a cup of gold. It was
no epicurean speech of an epicure, he that is not satisfied with a
little will never have enough: and very good counsel of him in the
[3751]poet, O my son, mediocrity of means agrees best with men; too
much is pernicious.
Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce,
Aequo animo.———
And if thou canst be content, thou hast abundance, nihil est, nihil
deest, thou hast little, thou wantest nothing. 'Tis all one to be
hanged in a chain of gold, or in a rope; to be filled with dainties or
coarser meat.
[3752]Si ventri bene, si lateri, pedibusque tuis, nil
Divitiae poterunt regales addere majus.
If belly, sides and feet be well at ease,
A prince's treasure can thee no more please.
Socrates in a fair, seeing so many things bought and sold, such a
multitude of people convented to that purpose, exclaimed forthwith, O
ye gods what a sight of things do not I want? 'Tis thy want alone that
keeps thee in health of body and mind, and that which thou persecutest
and abhorrest as a feral plague is thy physician and [3753]chiefest
friend, which makes thee a good man, a healthful, a sound, a virtuous,
an honest and happy man. For when virtue came from heaven (as the poet
feigns) rich men kicked her up, wicked men abhorred her, courtiers
scoffed at her, citizens hated her, [3754]and that she was thrust out
of doors in every place, she came at last to her sister Poverty, where
she had found good entertainment. Poverty and Virtue dwell together.
[3755]———O vitae tuta facultas
Pauperis, angustique lares, o munera nondum
Intellecta deum.
How happy art thou if thou couldst be content. Godliness is a great
gain, if a man can be content with that which he hath, 1 Tim. vi. 6.
And all true happiness is in a mean estate. I have a little wealth, as
he said, [3756]sed quas animus magnas facit, a kingdom in conceit;
[3757]———nil amplius opto
Maia nate, nisi ut propria haec mihi munera faxis;
I have enough and desire no more.
[3758]Dii bene fecerunt inopis me quodque pusilli
Fecerunt animi———
'tis very well, and to my content. [3759]Vestem et fortunam concinnam
potius quam laxam probo, let my fortune and my garments be both alike
fit for me. And which [3760]Sebastian Foscarinus, sometime Duke of
Venice, caused to be engraven on his tomb in St. Mark's Church, Hear, O
ye Venetians, and I will tell you which is the best thing in the world:
to contemn it. I will engrave it in my heart, it shall be my whole
study to contemn it. Let them take wealth, Stercora stercus amet so
that I may have security: bene qui latuit, bene vixit; though I live
obscure, [3761] yet I live clean and honest; and when as the lofty oak
is blown down, the silky reed may stand. Let them take glory, for
that's their misery; let them take honour, so that I may have heart's
ease. Duc me O Jupiter et tu fatum, [3762]&c. Lead me, O God, whither
thou wilt, I am ready to follow; command, I will obey. I do not envy at
their wealth, titles, offices;
[3763]Stet quicunque volet potens
Aulae culmine lubrico,
Me dulcis saturet quies.
let me live quiet and at ease. [3764]Erimus fortasse (as he comforted
himself) quando illi non erunt, when they are dead and gone, and all
their pomp vanished, our memory may flourish:
[3765]———dant perennes
Stemmata non peritura Musae.
Let him be my lord, patron, baron, earl, and possess so many goodly
castles, 'tis well for me [3766]that I have a poor house, and a little
wood, and a well by it, &c.
His me consolor victurum suavius, ac si
Quaestor avus pater atque meus, patruusque fuissent.
With which I feel myself more truly blest
Than if my sires the quaestor's power possess'd.
I live, I thank God, as merrily as he, and triumph as much in this my
mean estate, as if my father and uncle had been lord treasurer, or my
lord mayor. He feeds of many dishes, I of one: [3767]qui Christum
curat, non multum curat quam de preciosis cibis stercus conficiat, what
care I of what stuff my excrements be made? [3768]He that lives
according to nature cannot be poor, and he that exceeds can never have
enough, totus non sufficit orbis, the whole world cannot give him
content. A small thing that the righteous hath, is better than the
riches of the ungodly, Psal. xxxvii. 19; and better is a poor morsel
with quietness, than abundance with strife, Prov. xvii. 7. Be content
then, enjoy thyself, and as [3769] Chrysostom adviseth, be not angry
for what thou hast not, but give God hearty thanks for what thou hast
received.
[3770]Si dat oluscula
Mensa minuscula
pace referta,
Ne pete grandia,
Lautaque prandia
lite repleta.
But what wantest thou, to expostulate the matter? or what hast thou not
better than a rich man? [3771]health, competent wealth, children,
security, sleep, friends, liberty, diet, apparel, and what not, or at
least mayst have (the means being so obvious, easy, and well known) for
as he inculcated to himself,
[3772]Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem,
Jucundissime Martialis, haec sunt;
Res non parta labore, sed relicta,
Lis nunquam, &c.
I say again thou hast, or at least mayst have it, if thou wilt thyself,
and that which I am sure he wants, a merry heart. Passing by a village
in the territory of Milan, saith [3773]St. Austin, I saw a poor beggar
that had got belike his bellyful of meat, jesting and merry; I sighed,
and said to some of my friends that were then with me, what a deal of
trouble, madness, pain and grief do we sustain and exaggerate unto
ourselves, to get that secure happiness which this poor beggar hath
prevented us of, and which we peradventure shall never have? For that
which he hath now attained with the begging of some small pieces of
silver, a temporal happiness, and present heart's ease, I cannot
compass with all my careful windings, and running in and out, [3774]And
surely the beggar was very merry, but I was heavy; he was secure, but I
timorous. And if any man should ask me now, whether I had rather be
merry, or still so solicitous and sad, I should say, merry. If he
should ask me again, whether I had rather be as I am, or as this beggar
was, I should sure choose to be as I am, tortured still with cares and
fears; but out of peevishness, and not out of truth. That which St.
Austin said of himself here in this place, I may truly say to thee,
thou discontented wretch, thou covetous niggard, thou churl, thou
ambitious and swelling toad, 'tis not want but peevishness which is the
cause of thy woes; settle thine affection, thou hast enough.
[3775]Denique sit finis quaerendi, quoque habeas plus,
Pauperiem metuas minus, et finire laborem
Incipias; parto, quod avebas, utere.
Make an end of scraping, purchasing this manor, this field, that house,
for this and that child; thou hast enough for thyself and them:
[3776]———Quod petis hic est,
Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.
'Tis at hand, at home already, which thou so earnestly seekest. But
———O si angulus ille
Proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum,
O that I had but that one nook of ground, that field there, that
pasture, O si venam argenti fors quis mihi monstret—. O that I could
but find a pot of money now, to purchase, &c., to build me a new house,
to marry my daughter, place my son, &c. [3777]O if I might but live a
while longer to see all things settled, some two or three years, I
would pay my debts, make all my reckonings even: but they are come and
past, and thou hast more business than before. O madness, to think to
settle that in thine old age when thou hast more, which in thy youth
thou canst not now compose having but a little. [3778]Pyrrhus would
first conquer Africa, and then Asia, et tum suaviter agere, and then
live merrily and take his ease: but when Cyneas the orator told him he
might do that already, id jam posse fieri, rested satisfied, condemning
his own folly. Si parva licet componere magnis, thou mayst do the like,
and therefore be composed in thy fortune. Thou hast enough: he that is
wet in a bath, can be no more wet if he be flung into Tiber, or into
the ocean itself: and if thou hadst all the world, or a solid mass of
gold as big as the world, thou canst not have more than enough; enjoy
thyself at length, and that which thou hast; the mind is all; be
content, thou art not poor, but rich, and so much the richer as
[3779]Censorinus well writ to Cerellius, quanto pauciora optas, non quo
plura possides, in wishing less, not having more. I say then, Non
adjice opes, sed minue cupiditates ('tis [3780]Epicurus' advice), add
no more wealth, but diminish thy desires; and as [3781]Chrysostom well
seconds him, Si vis ditari, contemne divitias; that's true plenty, not
to have, but not to want riches, non habere, sed non indigere, vera
abundantia: 'tis more glory to contemn, than to possess; et nihil
agere, est deorum, and to want nothing is divine. How many deaf, dumb,
halt, lame, blind, miserable persons could I reckon up that are poor,
and withal distressed, in imprisonment, banishment, galley slaves,
condemned to the mines, quarries, to gyves, in dungeons, perpetual
thraldom, than all which thou art richer, thou art more happy, to whom
thou art able to give an alms, a lord, in respect, a petty prince:
[3782]be contented then I say, repine and mutter no more, for thou art
not poor indeed but in opinion.
Yea, but this is very good counsel, and rightly applied to such as have
it, and will not use it, that have a competency, that are able to work
and get their living by the sweat of their brows, by their trade, that
have something yet; he that hath birds, may catch birds; but what shall
we do that are slaves by nature, impotent, and unable to help
ourselves, mere beggars, that languish and pine away, that have no
means at all, no hope of means, no trust of delivery, or of better
success? as those old Britons complained to their lords and masters the
Romans oppressed by the Picts. mare ad barbaros, barbari ad mare, the
barbarians drove them to the sea, the sea drove them back to the
barbarians: our present misery compels us to cry out and howl, to make
our moan to rich men: they turn us back with a scornful answer to our
misfortune again, and will take no pity of us; they commonly overlook
their poor friends in adversity; if they chance to meet them, they
voluntarily forget and will take no notice of them; they will not, they
cannot help us. Instead of comfort they threaten us, miscall, scoff at
us, to aggravate our misery, give us bad language, or if they do give
good words, what's that to relieve us? According to that of Thales,
Facile est alios monere; who cannot give good counsel? 'tis cheap, it
costs them nothing. It is an easy matter when one's belly is full to
declaim against fasting, Qui satur est pleno laudat jejunia ventre;
Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass, or loweth the ox when he
hath fodder? Job vi. 5. [3783]Neque enim populo Romano quidquam potest
esse laetius, no man living so jocund, so merry as the people of Rome
when they had plenty; but when they came to want, to be hunger-starved,
neither shame, nor laws, nor arms, nor magistrates could keep them in
obedience. Seneca pleadeth hard for poverty, and so did those lazy
philosophers: but in the meantime [3784]he was rich, they had
wherewithal to maintain themselves; but doth any poor man extol it?
There are those (saith [3785] Bernard) that approve of a mean estate,
but on that condition they never want themselves: and some again are
meek so long as they may say or do what they list; but if occasion be
offered, how far are they from all patience? I would to God (as he
said) [3786]No man should commend poverty, but he that is poor, or he
that so much admires it, would relieve, help, or ease others.
[3787]Nunc si nos audis, atque es divinus Apollo,
Dic mihi, qui nummos non habet, unde petat:
Now if thou hear'st us, and art a good man,
Tell him that wants, to get means, if you can.
But no man hears us, we are most miserably dejected, the scum of the
world. [3788]Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum. We can get no
relief, no comfort, no succour, [3789]Et nihil inveni quod mihi ferret
opem. We have tried all means, yet find no remedy: no man living can
express the anguish and bitterness of our souls, but we that endure it;
we are distressed, forsaken, in torture of body and mind, in another
hell: and what shall we do? When [3790]Crassus the Roman consul warred
against the Parthians, after an unlucky battle fought, he fled away in
the night, and left four thousand men, sore, sick, and wounded in his
tents, to the fury of the enemy, which, when the poor men perceived,
clamoribus et ululatibus omnia complerunt, they made lamentable moan,
and roared downright, as loud as Homer's Mars when he was hurt, which
the noise of 10,000 men could not drown, and all for fear of present
death. But our estate is far more tragical and miserable, much more to
be deplored, and far greater cause have we to lament; the devil and the
world persecute us, all good fortune hath forsaken us, we are left to
the rage of beggary, cold, hunger, thirst, nastiness, sickness,
irksomeness, to continue all torment, labour and pain, to derision and
contempt, bitter enemies all, and far worse than any death; death alone
we desire, death we seek, yet cannot have it, and what shall we do?
Quod male fers, assuesce; feres bene —accustom thyself to it, and it
will be tolerable at last. Yea, but I may not, I cannot, In me
consumpsit vires fortuna nocendo, I am in the extremity of human
adversity; and as a shadow leaves the body when the sun is gone, I am
now left and lost, and quite forsaken of the world. Qui jacet in terra,
non habet unde cadat; comfort thyself with this yet, thou art at the
worst, and before it be long it will either overcome thee or thou it.
If it be violent, it cannot endure, aut solvetur, aut solvet: let the
devil himself and all the plagues of Egypt come upon thee at once, Ne
tu cede malis, sed contra audentior ito, be of good courage; misery is
virtue's whetstone.
[3791]—serpens, sitis, ardor, arenae,
Dulcia virtuti,