spending, and no delight in the world like unto it. 'Twas [1836]Bias'
problem of old, With what art thou not weary? with getting money. What
is most delectable? to gain. What is it, trow you, that makes a poor
man labour all his lifetime, carry such great burdens, fare so hardly,
macerate himself, and endure so much misery, undergo such base offices
with so great patience, to rise up early, and lie down late, if there
were not an extraordinary delight in getting and keeping of money? What
makes a merchant that hath no need, satis superque domi, to range all
over the world, through all those intemperate [1837]Zones of heat and
cold; voluntarily to venture his life, and be content with such
miserable famine, nasty usage, in a stinking ship; if there were not a
pleasure and hope to get money, which doth season the rest, and
mitigate his indefatigable pains? What makes them go into the bowels of
the earth, an hundred fathom deep, endangering their dearest lives,
enduring damps and filthy smells, when they have enough already, if
they could be content, and no such cause to labour, but an
extraordinary delight they take in riches. This may seem plausible at
first show, a popular and strong argument; but let him that so thinks,
consider better of it, and he shall soon perceive, that it is far
otherwise than he supposeth; it may be haply pleasing at the first, as
most part all melancholy is. For such men likely have some lucida
intervalla, pleasant symptoms intermixed; but you must note that of
[1838]Chrysostom, 'Tis one thing to be rich, another to be covetous:
generally they are all fools, dizzards, madmen, [1839]miserable
wretches, living besides themselves, sine arte fruendi, in perpetual
slavery, fear, suspicion, sorrow, and discontent, plus aloes quam
mellis habent; and are indeed, rather possessed by their money, than
possessors: as [1840]Cyprian hath it, mancipati pecuniis; bound
prentice to their goods, as [1841]Pliny; or as Chrysostom, servi
divitiarum, slaves and drudges to their substance; and we may conclude
of them all, as [1842]Valerius doth of Ptolomaeus king of Cyprus, He
was in title a king of that island, but in his mind, a miserable drudge
of money:
[1843]———potiore metallis
libertate carens———
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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