# Plutarch's Moralia (Holland)/Essay 11

OF AVARICE OR COVETOUSNESS
THE SUMMARY
[If there be any excess in the world that troubleth the repose and tranquillity of the spirit, causing our life to be wretched and miserable, it is avarice; against which the sages and wise men of all ages from time to time have framed sharp and terrible invectives, which in sum and effect do shew thus much; That this covetousness and greedy desire of gathering goods is (as it were) the capital city and seat-town of all wickedness; the very sink of sin and receptacle of all vices. Now albeit all men with one voice, yea, and the most covetous persons of all others do confess as much, yet the heart of man is so affectionate a friend to the earth, that needful it is to propose and set down divers instructions for to avert the same from thence, and to cause it to range and sort with other occupations and affairs, more beseeming itself than is the over-curious searching after transitory and corruptible things. This is the reason that those philosophers who have handled the doctrine as touching manners are employed herein: and Plutarch among the rest, who teacheth us here in few words with what considerations we ought to be furnished and fortified, that we do not permit such a pestilent plague as this to seize upon our souls: and therewith he sheweth the miseries that befall unto avarice; whereof this is the first and principal; That instead of giving contentment, it maketh her slave most wretched, and putteth him to the greatest pain and torture in the world. And hereupon he interlaceth and inserteth a description of three sorts of covetous persons. First, of those who covet things rare and dangerous, whereas they should seek after necessaries. Secondly, of such as spend nothing, have much, and yet desire more and more; and these he depainteth in all their colours. Thirdly, of them that be niggards and base-minded pinch-pennies. Which done, he discovereth the second misery of covetous wretches, to wit; That avarice doth tyrannise over her caitiff and slave, not suffering him to use that which she commanded him to win and get. The third is this; That it causeth him to gather and heap up riches, for some promoter or catch-poll, or else for a tyrant, or else for some wicked and graceless heir, whose nature and properties he doth represent and describe very lively. Afterwards having concluded that covetous persons are herein especially miserable; for that the one sort of them use not their goods at all, and other abuse the same: he prescribeth three remedies against this mischievous malady. The first; That those who greedily gape after riches, have no more in effect than they who stand contented with that which is necessary for nature. The second; That we are not to ​count them happy who be richly furnished with things unprofitable. And the last; That it is virtue wherein we ought to ground and seek for contentment; for there it is to be found and not in riches.]
Hippomachus, a great master of wrestling and such exercises of the body, hearing some to praise a certain tall man, high of stature, and having long arms and hands, commending him for a singular champion, and fit to fight at buffets: A proper fellow he were (quoth he) if the garland or prize of the victory were hung on high, for to be reached with the hand; semblably it may be said unto them who esteem so highly and repute it a great felicity to be possessed of much fair lands, to have many great and stately houses, to be furnished with mighty masses and sums of money, in case felicity were to be bought and sold for coin. And yet a man shall see many in the world, chuse rather to be rich and wretched withal, than to give their silver for to be happy and blessed: but surely it is not silver nor gold that can purchase either repose of spirit void of grief and anguish, or magnanimity, nor yet settled constancy and resolution, confidence, and suffisance, or contentment with our own estate. Be a man never so rich, he cannot skill thereby to contemn riches, no more than the possession of more than enough worketh this in us; That we want not still, and desire even things that be superfluous. What other evil and malady then doth our wealth and riches rid us from, if it delivereth us not from avarice? By drink men quench their thirst, by meat they slake their hunger. And he that said:
Give Hipponax a cloak to keep him warm, For cold extreme I shake, and may take harm,
if there were many clothes hung or cast upon him, would be offended therewith and fling them from him; but this their strong desire and love of money, it is neither silver nor gold that is able to quench: and let a man have never so much, yet he coveteth nevertheless to have more still. And well it may be verified of riches which one said sometime to an ignorant and deceitful physician:
Your drugs and salves augment my sore, They make me sicker than before.
For riches verily, after that men have once met therewith (whereas before they stood in need of bread, of a competent house to put their heads in, of mean raiment, and any viands that come next hand), fill them now with an impatient desire of gold, silver, ivory, emeralds, horses, and hounds, changing ​and transporting their natural appetite of things needful and necessary, into a disordinate lust to things dangerous, rare, hard to be gotten, and unprofitable when they be had. For never is any man poor in regard of such things as suffice nature; never doth he take up money upon usury for to buy himself meat, cheese, bread, or olives; but one indebteth himself for to build a sumptuous and stately house; another runs in debt because he would purchase a grove of olive trees that joineth to his own land; one is engaged deeply in the usurer's books, by laying corn-grounds and wheat-fields to his own domains, another because he would be possessed of fruitful vineyards; some are indebted with buying mules of Galatia, and others, because they would be masters
Of lusty steeds, to win the prize By running in a race, With rattling noise of empty coach, When it is drawn apace,
have cast themselves into the bottomless gulf of obligations, conditions, covenants, interests, statutes, real gages, and pawns: and afterwards it cometh to pass that like as they who drink when they be not dry, and eat without a stomach, many times cast up by vomit even that which they did eat and drink when they were hungry and thirsty; even so, when they will needs have such things as be superfluous and to no use, do not enjoy the benefit of those things that are needful and necessary indeed. Lo, what kind of people these be!
As for those who are at no cost, nor will lay out anything, and notwithstanding they have much, yet ever covet more; a man may rather marvel and wonder at them, if he would but remember that which Aristippus was wont to say: He that eateth much (quoth he) and drinketh likewise much, and is never satisfied nor full, goeth to the physicians, asketh their opinion what his disease and strange indisposition of the body might be, and withal craveth their counsel for the cure and remedy thereof: but if one who hath five fair bedsteads already with the furniture thereto belonging, and seeketh to make them ten; and having ten tables with their cupboards of plate, will needs buy ten more; and for all that he is possessed of fair manors and goodly lands, have his bags and coffers full of money, is never the better satisfied, but still gapeth after more, breaketh his sleeps, devising and casting as he lieth awake how to compass the same, and when he hath all, yet is he not full; such an one (I say) never thinks that he hath need of a physician to cure his malady or ​ to discourse unto him, from what cause all this doth proceed. And verily a man may look, that of those who are thirsty ordinarily, he that hath not drunk will be delivered of his thirst so soon as he meeteth with drink; but in case such an one as evermore drinketh and poureth in still, never giving over, yet nevertheless continueth dry and thirsty, we judge him to have no need of repletion, but rather of purging and evacuation; him (I say) we appoint for to vomit, as being not troubled and distempered upon any want, but with some extraordinary heat or unkind acrimonies of humours that be within him; even so it is with those that seek to get and gather goods: he that is bare and poor indeed, will haply give over seeking so soon as he hath got him an house to dwell in, or found some treasure, or met with a good friend to help him to a sum of money to make clear with the usurer, and to be crossed out of his book: but he that hath already more than enough and sufficient, and yet craveth more, surely it is neither gold nor silver that will cure him, neither horses, nor sheep, nor yet beeves will serve his turn; need had he of purgation and evacuation, for poverty is not his disease, but covetousness and an unsatiable desire of riches, proceeding from false judgment and a corrupt opinion that he hath, which if a man do not rid away out of his mind, as a winding gulf or whirlpool that is cross and overthwart in their way, they will never cease to hunt after superfluities, and seem to stand in need thereof, (that is to say) to covet those things which they know not what to do with. When a physician cometh into the chamber of a patient, whom he findeth lying along in his bed groaning, and refusing all food, he taketh him by the hand, feeleth his pulse, asketh him certain questions, and finding that he hath no ague; This is a disease (quoth he) of the mind, and so goeth his way; even so, when we see a worldly-minded man altogether set upon his gets and gains, pining away, and even consumed with the greedy worm of gathering good, weeping, whining, and sighing at expenses, and when any money is to go out of his purse, sticking at no pain and trouble, sparing for no indignity, no unhonest and indirect means whatsoever, nor caring which way he goes to work, whether it be by hook or crook, so that he may gain and profit thereby; having choice of houses and tenements, lands lying in every country, droves, herds, and flocks of cattle, a number of slaves, wardrobes of apparel and clothes of all sorts: what shall we say that this man is sick of, unless it be the poverty of the soul?
As for want of money and goods, one friend (as Menander ​saith) may cure and help with his bountiful hand; but that penury and neediness of the soul all the men in the world, that either live at this day or ever were beforetime, are not able to satisfy and suffice: and therefore of such Solon said very well:
No limit set, nor certain bound, men have
Of their desire to goods, but still they crave.
For those who are wise and of sound judgment are content with that measure and portion which nature hath set down and assigned for them; such men know an end, and keep themselves within the centre and circumference of their need and necessity only. But this is a peculiar property that avarice hath by itself. For a covetous desire it is, even repugnant to satiety, and hindereth itself that it never can have sufficient, whereas all other desires and lusts are aiding and helpful thereto. For no man (I trow) that is a glutton forbeareth to eat a good morsel of meat for gormandise, nor drunkard abstaineth from drinking wine upon an appetite and love that he hath to wine, as these covetous wretches do, who spare their money and will not touch it, through a desire only that they have of money. And how can we otherwise think, but it were a piteous and lamentable case, yea and a disease next cousin to mere madness, if a man should therefore spare the wearing of a garment, because he is ready to chill and quake for cold, or forbear to touch bread, for that he is almost hunger-starved; and even so not to handle his goods because he loveth them: certes, such a one is in the same plight and piteous perplexity that Thrasonides was, who in a certain comedy describeth his own miseries:
At home it is within my power, I may enjoy it every hour: I wish a thing as if I were In raging love, yet I forbear: When I have lock'd and seal'd up all, Or else put forth by count and tale, My coin to brokers for the use, Or other factors whom I chuse, I plod and plonder still for more, I hunt, I seek to fetch in store, I chide and brawl with servants mine, The husbandman and eke the hine I bring to count; and then anon My debtors all I call upon: By Dan Apollo now I swear, Was any man that earth did bear, Whom thou hast ever known or seen, In love more wretched to have been?
Sophocles being on a time demanded familiarly by one of his friends, whether he could yet keep company with a woman if ​ need were: God bless me (quoth he), my good friend, talk no more of that, I pray you, I am free from those matters long since, and by the benefit of mine old age, I have escaped the servitude of such violent and furious mistresses. And verily it is a good and gracious gift, that our lusts and appetites should end together with our strength and ability, especially in those delights and pleasures which, as Alcæus saith, neither man nor woman can well avoid. But this is not to be found in avarice and desire of riches; for she, like a curst, sharp, and shrewd quean, forceth indeed a man to get and gather, but she forbiddeth him withal to use and enjoy the same; she stirreth up and provoketh his lust, but she denieth him all pleasure. I remember that in old time Stratonicus taxed and mocked the Rhodians for their wasteful and superfluous expenses in this manner: They build sumptuously (quoth he), as if they were immortal and should never die; but they fare at their boards as though they had but a small while to live. But these covetous misers gather wealth together like mighty magnificoes, but they spend like beggarly mechanicals; they endure the pain and travail of getting, and taste no pleasure of the enjoying.
Demades the orator came one day to visit Phocion, and found him at dinner; but seeing but a little meat before him upon the table, and the same nothing fine and dainty, but coarse and simple: I marvel (quoth he), O Phocion, how you can take up with so short a dinner and so small a pittance, considering the pains you do endure in managing the affairs of state and commonwealth. As for Demades, he dealt indeed with government, and was a great man in the city with the people, but it was all for his belly, and to furnish a plentiful board, insomuch as, supposing that the city of Athens could not yield him revenue and provision sufficient for to maintain his excessive gormandise, he laid for cates and victuals out of Macedon, whereupon Antipater, when he saw him an old man with a wrinkled and withered face, said pleasantly: That he had nothing left now but his paunch and his tongue, much like unto a sheep, or some other beast killed for sacrifice when all is eaten besides. But thou, most unhappy and wretched miser, who would not make a wonder at thee, considering that thou canst lead so base and beggarly a life, without society of men or courtesy to thy neighbours, not giving ought to any person, shewing no kindness to thy friends, no bounty nor magnificence to the commonwealth, yet still doth afflict thy poor self, lie awake all the night long, toil and moil like a drudge and hireling ​ thyself, hire other labourers for day-wages, lie in the wind for inheritances, speak men fair in hope to be their heir, and debase thyself to all the world, and care not to whom thou cap and knee for gain, having, I say, so sufficient means otherwise to live at ease (to wit, thy niggardise and pinching parsimony), whereby thou mayst be dispensed for doing just nothing. It is reported of a certain Byzantine, who finding an adulterer in bed with his wife, who though she were but foul, yet was ill-favoured enough, said unto him: O miserable caitiff, what necessity hath driven thee thus to do? what needs Sapragoras dowry? well, go to: thou takest great pains, poor wretch, thou fillest and stirrest the lead, thou kindlest the fire also underneath it.
Necessary it is in some sort that kings and princes should seek for wealth and riches, that these governors also and deputies under them should be great gatherers, yea, and those also who reach at the highest places and aspire to rule and sovereign dignities in great states and cities; all these (I say) have need perforce to heap up gross sums of money, to the end that for their ambition, their proud port, pomp, and vain-glorious humour, they might make sumptuous feasts, give largesses, retain a guard about their persons, send presents abroad to other states, maintain and wage whole armies, buy slaves to combat and fight at sharp to the outrance: but thou makest thyself so much ado, thou troublest and tormentest both body and mind, living like an oyster or a shell-snail, and for to pinch and spare art content to undergo and endure all pain and travail, taking no pleasure nor delight in the world afterwards, no more than the bain-keeper's poor ass, which carrying billets and faggots of dry brush and sticks to kindle fire and to heat the stouphs, is evermore full of smoke, soot, ashes and cinders; but hath no benefit at all of the bain, and is never bathed, washed, warmed, rubbed, scoured and made clean. Thus much I speak in reproach and disdain of this miserable ass-like avarice, this base raping and scraping together in manner of ants or pismires.
Now there is another kind of covetousness more savage and beast-like, which they profess who backbite and slander, raise malicious imputations, forge false wills and testaments, lie in wait for heritages, cog and cozen, and intermeddle in all matters, will be seen in everything, know all men's states, busy themselves with many cares and troubles, count upon their fingers how many friends they have yet living, and when they have all done, receive no fruition or benefit by all the goods which ​they have gotten together from all parts, with their cunning casts and subtle shifts. And therefore, like as we have in greater hatred and detestation, vipers, the venomous flies cantharides, and the stinging spiders called philangia and tarantale, than either bears or lions, for that they kill folk and sting them to death; but receive no good or benefit at all by them when they are dead; even so be these wretches more odious and worthy to be hated of us, who by their miserable parsimony and pinching do mischief, than those who by their riot and wastefulness be hurtful to a commonweal, because they take and catch from others that which they themselves neither will nor know how to use. Whereupon it is that such as these, when they have gotten abundance, and are in manner full, rest them for a while, and do no more violence as it were in time of truce and surcease of hostility; much after the manner as Demosthenes said unto them who thought that Demades had given over all his lewdness and knavery: O (quoth he), you see him now full as lions are, who when they have filled their bellies, prey no more for the lice until they be hungry again: but such covetous wretches as be employed in government of civil affairs, and that for no profit nor pleasure at all which they intend, those, I say, never rest nor make holiday, they allow themselves no truce nor cessation from gathering and heaping more together still, as being evermore empty, and have always need of all things though they have all.
But some man perhaps will say: These men (I assure you) do save and lay up goods in store for their children and heirs after their death, unto whom whiles they live they will part with nothing: If that be so, I can compare them very well to those mice and cats in gold mines, which feed upon the gold ore, and lick up all the golden sand that the mines yield, so that men cannot come by the gold there before they be dead and cut up in manner of anatomies. But tell me (I pray you) wherefore are these so willing to treasure up so much money and so great substance, and leave the same to their children, inheritors and successors after them? I verily believe to this end, that those children and heirs also of theirs should keep the same still for others likewise, and so to pass from hand to hand by descent of many degrees; like as earthen conduct-pipes, by which water is conveyed into some cistern, withhold and retain none of all the water that passeth through them, but do transmit and send all away from them, each one to that which is next, and reserve none to themselves; thus do they until some arise from ​without, a mere stranger to the house, one that is a sycophant or very tyrant, who shall cut off this keeper of that great stock and treasure, and when he hath dispatched and made a hand of him, drive and turn the course of all this wealth and riches out of the usual channel another way; or at leastwise until it fall into the hands (as commonly men say it doth) of the most wicked and ungracious imp of that race, who will disperse and scatter that which others have gathered, who will consume and devour all unthriftily which his predecessors have gotten and spared wickedly: for not only as Euripides saith:
Those children wasteful prove and bad, Who servile slaves for parents had,
but also covetous carls and pinching penny-fathers leave children behind them that be loose and riotous and spendthrifts; like as Diogenes by way of mockery said upon a time: That it were better to be a Megarian's ram than his son: for wherein they would seem to instruct and inform their children, they spoil and mar them clean, ingrafting into their hearts a desire and love of money, teaching them to be covetous and base-minded pinch-pennies, laying the foundation (as it were) in their heirs of some strong place or fort, wherein they may surely guard and keep their inheritance.
And what good lessons and precepts be these which they teach them: Gain and spare, my son, get and save; think with thyself and make thine account that thou shalt be esteemed in the world according to thy wealth and not otherwise. But surely this not to instruct a child, but rather to knit up fast or sew up the mouth of a purse that it may hold and keep the better whatsoever is put into it. This only is the difference, that a purse or money-bag becometh foul, sullied and ill-savouring after that silver is put into it; but the children of covetous persons, before they receive their patrimonies or attain to any riches, are filled already even by their fathers with avarice, and a hungry desire after their substance: and verily such children thus nurtured, reward their parents again for their schooling with a condign salary and recompense, in that they love them not because they shall receive much one day by them, but hate them rather for that they have nothing from them in present possession already, for having learned this lesson of them; To esteem nothing in the world in comparison of wealth and riches, and to aim at nought else in the whole course of their life, but to gather a deal of goods together, they repute the lives of their ​ parents to be a block in their way, they wish in heart that their heads were well laid, they do what they can to shorten their lives, making this reckoning; That how much time is added to their old age, so much they lose of their youthful years. And this is the reason why during the life of their fathers, secretly and underhand they steal (after a sort, by snatches) their pleasure, and enjoy the same; they will make semblance as if it came from other, when they give away money and distribute it among their friends, or otherwise spend it in their delights; whiles they catch it privily from under the very wing of their parents, and when they go to hear and take out their lessons, they will be sure to pick their purses if they can, before they go away; but after their parents be dead and gone, when they have gotten into their hands the keys of their coffers and signets of their bags, then the case is altered, and they enter into another course and fashion of life: you shall have my young masters then put on a grave and austere countenance, they will not seem to laugh, nor be spoken to, or acquainted with anybody; there is no talk now of anointing the body for any exercise, the racket is cast aside, the tennis court no more haunted, no wrestling practised, no going to the schools either of the Academy or Lyceum, to hear the lectures and disputations of professors and philosophers. But now the officers and servants be called to an audit and account; now they are examined what they have under their hands; now the writings, bills, obligations, and deeds are sought up and perused; now they fall to argue and reason with their receivers, stewards, factors, and debtors; so sharp-set they are to their negotiations and affairs; so full of cares and business that they have no leisure to take their dinners or noon meals; and if they sup, they cannot intend to go into the bain or hot-house before it be late in the night; the bodily exercises wherein they were brought up and trained in be laid down; no swimming nor bathing any more in the river Dirce; all such matters be cast behind and clean forgotten. Now if a man say to one of these: Will you go and hear such a philosopher read a lecture, or make a sermon? How can I go? (will he say again) I have no while since my father's death. miserable and wretched man, what hath he left unto thee of all his goods comparable to that which he hath bereaved thee of, to wit, repose and liberty: but it is not thy father so much, as his riches flowing round about thee, that environeth and compasseth thee so, as it hath gotten the mastery over thee; this hath set foot upon thy throat, ​this hath conquered thee; like unto that shrewd wife in Hesiodus,
Who burns a man without a match Or brand of scorching fire, And driveth him to gray old age Before that time require,
causing thy soul (as it were) to be full of rivels and hoary hairs before time, bringing with it carking cares and tedious travels proceeding from the love of money, and a world of affairs without any repose, whereby that alacrity, cheerfulness, worship, and sociable courtesy which ought to be in a man are decayed and faded clean to nothing.
But what mean you, sir, by all this? (will some one haply say unto me). See you not how there be some that bestow their wealth liberally with credit and reputation? Unto whom I answer thus: Have you never heard what Aristotle said? That as some there are who have no use at all of their goods, so there be others who abuse the same; as if he should say: Neither the one nor other was seemly and as it ought to be: for as those get neither profit nor honour by their riches, so these sustain loss and shame thereby. But let us consider a little what is the use of these riches which are thus much esteemed: Is it not (I pray you) to have those things which are necessary for nature? but these who are so rich and wealthy above the rest, what have they more to content nature than those who live in a mean and competent estate? Certes, riches (as Theophrastus saith) is not so great a matter that we should love and admire it so much, if it be true that Callias, the wealthiest person in all Athens, and Ismenias, the richest citizen of Thebes, use the same things that Socrates and Epaminondas did. For like as Agathon banished the flute, comet, and such other pipes from the solemn feasts of men, and sent them to women in their solemnities, supposing that the discourses of men who are present at the table are sufficient to entertain mirth; even so may he as well rid away out of houses, hangings, coverlets and carpets of purple, costly and sumptuous tables, and all such superfluities, who seeth that the great rich worldlings use the very same that poorer men do. I would not as Hesiodus saith:
That plough or helm should hang in smoke to dry. Or painful tillage now be laid aside, Nor works of ox and mule for ever die, Who serve our turns to draw, to till, to ride;
but rather that these goldsmiths, turners, gravers, perfumers, and cooks would be chased and sent away, forasmuch as this were indeed an honest and civil banishment of unprofitable artificers as foreigners that may be spared out of a city. Now if it be so, that things requisite for the necessity of nature be common as well to the poor as the rich, and that riches do vaunt and stand so much upon nothing else but superfluities, and that Scopas the Thessalian is worthily commended in this; that being requested to give away and part with somewhat of his household stuff which he might spare and had no need of: Why (quoth he), in what things else consisteth the felicity of those who are reputed happy and fortunate in this world above other men, but in these superfluities that you seem to ask at my hands, and not in such as be necessary and requisite? If it be so, I say, see that you be not like unto him that praiseth a pomp and solemn shew of plays and games more than life indeed, which standeth upon things necessary. The procession and solemnity of the Bacchanals which was exhibited in our country, was wont in old time to be performed after a plain and homely manner, merrily and with great joy: You should have seen there one carrying a little barrel of wine, another a branch of a vine tree; after him comes one drawing and plucking after him a goat; then followeth another with a basket of dried figs; and last of all one that bare in shew phallus, that is to say, the resemblance of the genital member of a man: but nowadays all these ceremonies are despised, neglected, and in manner not at all to be seen, such a train there is of those that carry vessels of gold and silver, so many sumptuous and costly robes, such stately chariots richly set out are driven and drawn with brave steeds most gallantly dight, besides the pageants, dumb-shews and masks, that they hide and obscure the ancient and true pomp according to the first institution; and even so it is in riches; the things that be necessary and serve for use and profit are overwhelmed and covered with needless toys and superfluous vanities, and I assure you the most part of us be like unto young Telemachus, who for want of knowledge and experience, or rather indeed for default of judgment and discretion, when he beheld Nestor's house furnished with beds, tables, hangings, tapestry, apparel, and well provided also of sweet and pleasant wines, never reckoned the master of the house happy for having so good provision of such necessary and profitable things: but being in Menelaus his house, and seeing there store of ivory, gold and silver, and the metal electrum, he was ravished and ​in an ecstasy with admiration thereof, and brake out in these words:
Like unto this, the palace all Within I judge to be, Of Jupiter, that mighty god, Who dwells in azure sky: How rich, how fair, how infinite Are all things which I see! My heart, as I do them behold, Is ravish'd wondrously.
But Socrates or Diogenes would have said thus rather:
How many wretched things are here? How needless all and vain? When I them view, I laugh thereat, Of them I am not fain.
And what sayst thou, foolish and vain sot as thou art? Whereas thou shouldest have taken from thy very wife her purple, her jewels and gaudy ornaments, to the end that she might no more long for such superfluity, nor run a madding after foreign vanities, far fetched and dear bought; dost thou contrariwise embellish and adorn thy house, like a theatre, scaffold and stage to make a goodly sight for those that come into the shew-place? Lo, wherein lieth the felicity and happiness that riches bringeth, making a trim shew before those who gaze upon them, and to testify and report to others what they have seen: set this aside (that they be not shewed to all the world) there is nothing at all therein to reckon. But it is not so with temperance, with philosophy, with the true knowledge of the gods, so far forth as is meet and behoveful to be known, for these are the same still and all one, although every man attain not thereto but all others be ignorant thereof. This piety (I say) and religion hath always a great light of her own and resplendent beams proper to itself, wherewith it doth shine in the soul, evermore accompanied with a certain joy that never ceaseth to take contentment in her own good within, whether any one see it or no, whether it be unknown to gods and men or no, it skilleth not. Of this kind and nature is virtue indeed, and truth, the beauty also of the mathematical sciences, to wit, geometry and astrology; unto which who will think that the gorgeous trappings and caparisons, the brooches, collars and carkans of riches are any ways comparable, which (to say a truth) are no better than jewels and ornaments good to trim young brides and set out maidens for to be seen and looked at? For riches, if no man do regard, behold, and set their eyes on them (to say a truth), is a blind ​ thing of itself, and sendeth no light at all nor rays from it; for certainly say that a rich man dine and sup privately alone, or with his wife and some inward and familiar friends, he troubleth not himself about furnishing of his table with many services, dainty dishes, and festival fare; he stands not so much upon his golden cups and goblets, but useth those things that be ordinary, which go about every day and come next hand, as well vessel as viands; his wife sits by his side and bears him company, not decked and hung with jewels and spangles of gold, not arrayed in purple, but in plain attire and simply clad; but when he makes a feast, (that is to say) sets out a theatre wherein the pomps and shews are to meet and make a jangling noise together, when the plays are to be represented of his riches, and the solemn train thereof to be brought in place; then comes abroad his brave furniture indeed; then he fetcheth out of the ship his fair chaufers and goodly pots; then bringeth he forth his rich three-footed tables; then come abroad the lamps, candle-sticks and branches of silver; the lights are disposed in order about the cups; the cup-bearers, skinkers and tasters are changed; all places are newly dight and covered; all things are then stirred and removed that saw no sun long before; the silver plate, the golden vessels, and those that be set and enriched with precious stones; to conclude, now there is no shew else but of riches; at such a time they confess themselves and will be known wealthy. But all this while, whether a rich man sup alone, or make a feast, temperance is away and true contentment.