The tub of the naked Cynic[1048] does not catch fire! If you smash it, another home will be built by to-morrow, or else the same will stand, if soldered with a little lead. Alexander felt, when he saw in that tub its great inhabitant, how much more really happy was he who coveted nothing, than he who aimed at gaining to himself the whole world; doomed to suffer perils equivalent to the exploits he achieved. Had we but foresight, thou, Fortune, wouldst have no divinity.[1049] It is _we_ that make thee a goddess! Yet if any one were to consult me what proportion of income is sufficient, I will tell you. Just as much as thirst and hunger[1050] and cold require; as much as satisfied you, Epicurus,[1051] in your little garden! as much as the home of Socrates contained before. Nature never gives one lesson, and philosophy another. Do I seem to bind you down to too strict examples? Then throw in something to suit our present manners. Make up the sum[1052] which Otho's law thinks worthy of the Fourteen Rows. If this make you contract your brows, and put out your lip, then take two knights' estate, make it the three Four-hundred![1053] If I have not yet filled your lap, but still it gapes for more, then neither Crœsus' wealth nor the realms of Persia will ever satisfy you. No! nor even Narcissus'[1054] wealth! on whom Claudius Cæsar lavished all, and whose behest he obeyed, when bidden even to kill his wife. FOOTNOTES: [922] _Fuscinus._ Nothing is known of him. "Fuscinus, those ill deeds that sully fame, And lay such blots upon an honest name, In blood once tainted, like a current run From the lewd father to the lewder son." Dryden. [923] _Alea_, i., 89. Cf. Propert., IV., viii., 45, "Me quoque per talos Venerem quærente secundos, Semper _damnosi_ subsiluere Canes." The Romans used four dice in throwing, which were thrown on a table with a rim (alveolus or abacus), out of a dice-box made of horn, box-wood, or ivory. This fritillus was a kind of _cup_, narrower at the top than below. When made in the form of a tower, with graduated intervals, it was called pyrgus, turricula, or phimus. [924] _Ludit._ "Repeats in miniature the darling vice; Shakes the low box, and cogs the little dice." Gifford. [925] _Tubera._ Cf. v., 116, _seq._ Mart., Ep. xiii., 50. [926] _Boletum._ Cf. v., 147. Mart., Ep. xiii., 48. [927] _Ficedulas._ Mr. Metcalfe translates "snipes." Cf. Mart., Ep. xiii., 49, "Cum me ficus alat, cum pascar dulcibus uvis, Cur potius nomen non dedit uva mihi?" [928] _Gula_, i., 140. [929] _Septimus._ Plin., vii., 16, "Editis infantibus primores dentes septimo gignuntur mense: iidem anno septimo decidunt, aliique sufficiuntur." [930] _Barbatos._ Pers., iv., 1, "Barbatum hoc crede magistrum dicere sorbitio tollit quem dira cicutæ." Cic., Fin., iv., "Barba sylvosa et pulchre alita, quamvis res ipsa sit exterior et fortuita, inter hominis eruditi insignia recensetur."