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One is sick of his neighbour's field, whose misshapen angles disfigure his, and hinder his lordship of entireness: what he hath is not regarded, for the want of what he cannot have. Another feeds on crusts, to purchase what he must leave, perhaps, to a fool; or, which is not much better, to a prodigal heir. Another, in the extremity of covetous folly, chooses to die an unpitied death; hanging himself for the fall of the market, while the commons laugh at that loss, and in their speeches epitaph upon him as on that pope, He lived as a wolf, and died as a dog." One cares not what attendance he dances all hours, on whose stairs he sits, what vices he soothes, what deformities he imitates, what servile offices he doth, in a hope to rise. Another stomachs the covered head and stiff knee of his inferior; angry that other men think him not so good as he thinks himself. Another eats his own heart, with envy at the richer furniture, and better estate, or more honour of his neighbour; thinking his own not good, because another hath better. Another vexeth himself with a word of disgrace, passed from the mouth of an enemy, which he neither can digest nor cast up; resolving, because another will be his enemy, to be These humours are as manifold as there are men that seem prosperous.

his own.

For the avoiding of all which ridiculous and yet spiteful inconveniences, the mind must be settled in a persuasion of the worthlessness of these out

Boniface VIII. Celestine V., his immediate predecessor, is said to have prophesied concerning this pope, "that he would enter upon his office like a fox, reign like a lion, and die like a dog." Whether this saying was really uttered before or forged after his promotion, it was certainly in a great measure verified. See Bower's Hist. of the Popes. Vol. vi. p. 372.—ED.

ward things. Let it know, that these riches have made many prouder, none better; that, as never man was, so never wise man thought himself better for enjoying them. Would that wise philosopher' have cast his gold into the sea, if he had not known he should live more happily without it? If he knew not the use of riches, he was no wise man: if he knew not the best way to quietness, he was no philosopher: now, even by the voice of their oracle, he was confessed to be both; yet cast away his gold that he might be happy. Would that wise prophet have prayed as well against riches as poverty ?3 Would so many great men, whereof our little island hath yielded nine crowned kings, while it was held of old by the Saxons, after they had continued their life in the throne, have ended it in the cell, and changed their sceptre for a book, if they could have found as much felicity in the highest estate as security in the lowest? I hear Peter and John, the eldest and dearest apostles, say, 'Gold and silver have I none ?' I hear the devil say, "All these will I give thee; and they are mine to give:" whether shall I desire to be in the state of these saints, or that devil? He was, therefore, a better husband' than a philosopher, that first termed riches goods; and he mended the title well, that, adding a fit epithet, called them goods of fortune; false goods ascribed to a false patron. There is no fortune to give or guide riches; there is no true goodness in riches to be guided. His meaning then was, as I can inter

1 Socrates.

2 A proof that, with Christians, deserves no credit; but, with heathens, commands it.

3 Prov. xxx. 8.

4 i. e. Economist.

pret it, to teach us, in this title, that it is a chance if ever riches were good to any. In sum, who would account those as riches, or those riches as goods, which hurt the owner, disquiet others; which the worst have; which the best have not; which those that have not, want not; which those want that have them; which are lost in a night, and a man is not worse when he hath lost them? It is true of them that we say of fire and water; they are good servants, ill masters. Make them thy slaves, they shall be goods indeed; in use, if not in nature; good to thyself, good to others by thee: but, if they be thy masters, thou hast condemned thyself to thine own galleys. If a servant rule, he proves a tyrant. What madness is this! thou hast made thyself at once a slave and a fool. What if thy chains be of gold? or if, with Heliogabalus, thou hast made thee silken halters? thy servitude may be glorious: it is no less miserable.

SECTION XIX.

The second Enemy on the right hand-Honour. HONOUR, perhaps, is yet better: such is the confused opinion of those that know little; but a distinct and curious head shall find a hard task, to define in what point the goodness thereof consisteth.

Is it in high descent of blood? I would think so, if nature were tied by any law to produce children like qualitied to their parents. But, although in the brute creatures she be ever thus regular, that ye shall never find a young pigeon hatched in an

eagle's nest; neither can I think that true, or if true it was monstrous, that Nicippus's sheep should yean a lion; yet, in the best creature, which hath his form and her attending qualities from above, with a likeness of face and features, is commonly found an unlikeness of disposition; only the earthly part follows the seed: wisdom, valour, virtue, are of another beginning. Shall I bow to a molten calf, because it was made of golden ear-rings? Shall I condemn all honour of the first head, though upon never so noble deserving, because it can show nothing before itself but a white shield? If Cæsar, or Agathocles, be a potter's son, shall I contemn him? Or if wise Bion be the son of an infamous courtesan,' shall the censorious lawyer raze him out of the catalogue, with partus sequitur ventrem ?2 Lastly, shall I account that good which is incident to the worst? Either, therefore, greatness must show some charter, wherein it is privileged with succession of virtue, or else the goodness of honour cannot consist in blood.

Is it, then, in the admiration and high opinion that others have conceived of thee, which draws all dutiful respect and humble offices from them to thee? O fickle good, that is ever in the keeping of others! especially of the unstable vulgar, that beast of many heads; whose divided tongues, as they never agree with each other, so seldom (whenever3) agree long with themselves. Do we not see the superstitious Lystrians, that erewhile would needs. make Paul a god against his will; and, in devout zeal, drew crowned bulls to the altars of their new

1 Olympia. Diogen. Laert.

2 "The child follows the maternal parent."-ED.

If ever.-ED.

Jupiter and Mercury ?-violence can scarce hold them from sacrificing to him; now, not many hours after, gather up stones against him; having, in their conceits, turned him from a god into a malefactor; and are ready to kill him, instead of killing a sacrifice to him. Such is the multitude, and such the steadiness of their honour.

There, then, only is true honour, where blood and virtue meet together; the greatness whereof is from blood, the goodness from virtue. Rejoice, ye great men, that your blood is ennobled with the virtues and deserts of your ancestors. This only is yours; this only challengeth all unfeigned respect of your inferiors. Count it praiseworthy, not that you have, but that you deserve honour. Blood may be tainted: the opinion of the vulgar cannot be constant; only virtue is ever like itself, and only wins reverence even of those that hate it; without which, greatness is as a beacon of vice, to draw men's eyes the more to behold it; and those that see it dare loathe it, though they dare not censure it. So, while the knee bendeth the mind abhorreth, and telleth the body it honours an unworthy subject; within itself secretly comparing that vicious great man, on whom his submiss courtesy is cast away, to some goodly fair-bound Seneca's tragedies, that is curiously gilded without; which if a man open, he shall find Thyestes the tomb of his own children; or Oedipus the husband of his own mother; or some such monstrous part, which he at once reads and hates.