(47.) There exist miseries in this world which wring the very heart; some people want even food; they dread the winter and are afraid to live; others eat hothouse fruits; the earth and the seasons are compelled to furnish forth delicacies; and mere citizens, simply because they have grown rich, dare to swallow in one morsel what would nourish a hundred families. Whatever may be brought forward against such extremes, let me be neither unhappy or happy if I can help it; I take refuge in mediocrity. (48.) It is well known that the poor are sad because they want everything and nobody comforts them; but if it be true that the rich are irascible, it is because they may want the smallest thing, or that some one might oppose them. (49.) A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income. There are some men[295] who with an annual revenue of two millions are yearly still five hundred thousand _livres_ in arrears. Nothing keeps longer than a middling fortune, and nothing melts away sooner than a large one. Great riches are a temptation for poverty. If it be true that a man is rich who wants nothing, a wise man is a very rich man.[296] If a man be poor who wishes to have everything, then an ambitious and a miserly man languish in extreme poverty. (50.) Passions tyrannise over mankind, but ambition keeps the others in abeyance, and makes for a while a man appear to possess every virtue. I once believed that Tryphon, whom I now know to practise every vice, was sober, chaste, liberal, modest, and even pious; I might have believed so still if he had not made his fortune. (51.) All that a man wishes for is riches and grandeur; he falls very ill, and death draws near, and though his face be shrivelled and his legs totter, yet he is still talking of his fortune and his post. (52.) There are but two ways of rising in the world, either by your own industry or by the folly of others. (53.) The features may indicate the natural disposition, habits, and morals of a man, but it is the expression of the whole countenance that discovers his wealth; it is written in a manʼs face whether he has more or less than a thousand _livres_ a year. (54.) Chrysantes, a wealthy and impertinent man, would think it a disgrace to be seen with Eugenius, who is a man of merit but poor; Eugenius entertains the same feelings towards Chrysantes; so there is no chance of their ever quarrelling together.