The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 41

"Nec spes corde avidas, nec curam pascit inanem Securus quo fata cadant."

He is not troubled with state matters, whether kingdoms thrive better by succession or election; whether monarchies should be mixed, temperate, or absolute; the house of Ottomans and Austria is all one to him; he inquires not after colonies or new discoveries; whether Peter were at Rome, or Constantine's donation be of force; what comets or new stars signify, whether the earth stand or move, there be a new world in the moon, or infinite worlds, &c. He is not touched with fear of invasions, factions or emulations;

[3728] "Felix ille animi, divisque simillimus ipsis, Quem non mordaci resplendens gloria fuco Solicitat, non fastosi mala gaudia luxus, Sed tacitos sinit ire dies, et paupere cultu [3729] Exigit innocuae tranquilla silentia vitae.

"A happy soul, and like to G.o.d himself, Whom not vain glory macerates or strife.

Or wicked joys of that proud swelling pelf, But leads a still, poor, and contented life."

A secure, quiet, blissful state he hath, if he could acknowledge it. But here is the misery, that he will not take notice of it; he repines at rich men's wealth, brave hangings, dainty fare, as [3730]Simonides objected to Hieron, he hath all the pleasures of the world, [3731]_in lectis eburneis dormit, vinum phialis bibit, optimis unguentis delibuitur_, "he knows not the affliction of Joseph, stretching himself on ivory beds, and singing to the sound of the viol." And it troubles him that he hath not the like: there is a difference (he grumbles) between Laplolly and Pheasants, to tumble i' th' straw and lie in a down bed, betwixt wine and water, a cottage and a palace. "He hates nature" (as [3732]Pliny characterised him) "that she hath made him lower than a G.o.d, and is angry with the G.o.ds that any man goes before him;" and although he hath received much, yet (as [3733]Seneca follows it) "he thinks it an injury that he hath no more, and is so far from giving thanks for his tribunes.h.i.+p, that he complains he is not praetor, neither doth that please him, except he may be consul." Why is he not a prince, why not a monarch, why not an emperor? Why should one man have so much more than his fellows, one have all, another nothing? Why should one man be a slave or drudge to another? One surfeit, another starve, one live at ease, another labour, without any hope of better fortune? Thus they grumble, mutter, and repine: not considering that inconstancy of human affairs, judicially conferring one condition with another, or well weighing their own present estate. What they are now, thou mayst shortly be; and what thou art they shall likely be. Expect a little, compare future and times past with the present, see the event, and comfort thyself with it. It is as well to be discerned in commonwealths, cities, families, as in private men's estates. Italy was once lord of the world, Rome the queen of cities, vaunted herself of two [3734]myriads of inhabitants; now that all-commanding country is possessed by petty princes, [3735]Rome a small village in respect. Greece of old the seat of civility, mother of sciences and humanity; now forlorn, the nurse of barbarism, a den of thieves. Germany then, saith Tacitus, was incult and horrid, now full of magnificent cities: Athens, Corinth, Carthage, how flouris.h.i.+ng cities, now buried in their own ruins! _Corvorum, ferarum, aprorum et bestiarum l.u.s.tra_, like so many wildernesses, a receptacle of wild beasts. Venice a poor fisher-town; Paris, London, small cottages in Caesar's time, now most n.o.ble emporiums. Valois, Plantagenet, and Scaliger how fortunate families, how likely to continue! now quite extinguished and rooted out. He stands aloft today, full of favour, wealth, honour, and prosperity, in the top of fortune's wheel: tomorrow in prison, worse than nothing, his son's a beggar. Thou art a poor servile drudge, _Foex populi_, a very slave, thy son may come to be a prince, with Maximinus, Agathocles, &c. a senator, a general of an army; thou standest bare to him now, workest for him, drudgest for him and his, takest an alms of him: stay but a little, and his next heir peradventure shall consume all with riot, be degraded, thou exalted, and he shall beg of thee. Thou shalt be his most honourable patron, he thy devout servant, his posterity shall run, ride, and do as much for thine, as it was with [3736]Frisgobald and Cromwell, it may be for thee. Citizens devour country gentlemen, and settle in their seats; after two or three descents, they consume all in riot, it returns to the city again.

[3737] ------"Novus incola venit; Nam propriae telluris herum natura, neque illum.

Nec me, nec quenquam statuit; nos expulit ille: Illum aut nequities, aut vafri inscitia juris."

------"have we liv'd at a more frugal rate, Since this new stranger seiz'd on our estate?

Nature will no perpetual heir a.s.sign, Or make the farm his property or mine.

He turn'd us out: but follies all his own, Or lawsuits and their knaveries yet unknown, Or, all his follies and his lawsuits past, Some long-liv'd heir shall turn him out at last."

A lawyer buys out his poor client, after a while his client's posterity buy out him and his; so things go round, ebb and flow.

"Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli Dictus erat, nulli proprius, sed cedit in usum Nunc mihi, nunc aliis;"------

"The farm, once mine, now bears Umbrenus' name; The use alone, not property, we claim; Then be not with your present lot depressed, And meet the future with undaunted breast;"

as he said then, _ager cujus, quot habes Dominos_? So say I of land, houses, movables and money, mine today, his anon, whose tomorrow? In fine, (as [3738]Machiavel observes) "virtue and prosperity beget rest; rest idleness; idleness riot; riot destruction from which we come again to good laws; good laws engender virtuous actions; virtue, glory, and prosperity;"

"and 'tis no dishonour then" (as Guicciardine adds) "for a flouris.h.i.+ng man, city, or state to come to ruin," [3739]"nor infelicity to be subject to the law of nature." _Ergo terrena calcanda, sitienda coelestia_, (therefore I say) scorn this transitory state, look up to heaven, think not what others are, but what thou art: [3740]_Qua parte locatus es in re_: and what thou shalt be, what thou mayst be. Do (I say) as Christ himself did, when he lived here on earth, imitate him as much as in thee lies. How many great Caesars, mighty monarchs, tetrarchs, dynasties, princes lived in his days, in what plenty, what delicacy, how bravely attended, what a deal of gold and silver, what treasure, how many sumptuous palaces had they, what provinces and cities, ample territories, fields, rivers, fountains, parks, forests, lawns, woods, cells, &c.? Yet Christ had none of all this, he would have none of this, he voluntarily rejected all this, he could not be ignorant, he could not err in his choice, he contemned all this, he chose that which was safer, better, and more certain, and less to be repented, a mean estate, even poverty itself; and why dost thou then doubt to follow him, to imitate him, and his apostles, to imitate all good men: so do thou tread in his divine steps, and thou shalt not err eternally, as too many worldlings do, that run on in their own dissolute courses, to their confusion and ruin, thou shalt not do amiss. Whatsoever thy fortune is, be contented with it, trust in him, rely on him, refer thyself wholly to him.

For know this, in conclusion, _Non est volentis nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei_, 'tis not as men, but as G.o.d will. "The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, bringeth low, and exalteth" (1 Sam. ii. ver. 7. 8), "he lifteth the poor from the dust, and raiseth the beggar from the dunghill, to set them amongst princes, and make them inherit the seat of glory;" 'tis all as he pleaseth, how, and when, and whom; he that appoints the end (though to us unknown) appoints the means likewise subordinate to the end.

Yea, but their present estate crucifies and torments most mortal men, they have no such forecast, to see what may be, what shall likely be, but what is, though not wherefore, or from whom, _hoc anget_, their present misfortunes grind their souls, and an envious eye which they cast upon other men's prosperities, _Vicinumque pecus grandius uber habet_, how rich, how fortunate, how happy is he? But in the meantime he doth not consider the other miseries, his infirmities of body and mind, that accompany his estate, but still reflects upon his own false conceived woes and wants, whereas if the matter were duly examined, [3741]he is in no distress at all, he hath no cause to complain.

[3742] ------"tolle querelas, Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppet.i.t usus,"

"Then cease complaining, friend, and learn to live.

He is not poor to whom kind fortune grants, Even with a frugal hand, what Nature wants."

he is not poor, he is not in need. [3743]"Nature is content with bread and water; and he that can rest satisfied with that, may contend with Jupiter himself for happiness." In that golden age, [3744]_somnos dedit umbra salubres, potum quoque lubricus amnis_, the tree gave wholesome shade to sleep under, and the clear rivers drink. The Israelites drank water in the wilderness; Samson, David, Saul, Abraham's servant when he went for Isaac's wife, the Samaritan woman, and how many besides might I reckon up, Egypt, Palestine, whole countries in the [3745]Indies, that drank pure water all their lives. [3746]The Persian kings themselves drank no other drink than the water of Chaospis, that runs by Susa, which was carried in bottles after them, whithersoever they went. Jacob desired no more of G.o.d, but bread to eat, and clothes to put on in his journey, Gen. xxviii. 20. _Bene est cui deus obtulit Parca quod satis est manu_; bread is enough [3747]"to strengthen the heart." And if you study philosophy aright, saith [3748]

Maudarensis, "whatsoever is beyond this moderation, is not useful, but troublesome." [3749]Agellius, out of Euripides, accounts bread and water enough to satisfy nature, "of which there is no surfeit, the rest is not a feast, but a riot." [3750]S. Hierome esteems him rich "that hath bread to eat, and a potent man that is not compelled to be a slave; hunger is not ambitious, so that it have to eat, and thirst doth not prefer a cup of gold." It was no epicurean speech of an epicure, he that is not satisfied with a little will never have enough: and very good counsel of him in the [3751]poet, "O my son, mediocrity of means agrees best with men; too much is pernicious."

"Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce, Aequo animo."------

And if thou canst be content, thou hast abundance, _nihil est, nihil deest_, thou hast little, thou wantest nothing. 'Tis all one to be hanged in a chain of gold, or in a rope; to be filled with dainties or coa.r.s.er meat.

[3752] "Si ventri bene, si lateri, pedibusque tuis, nil Divitiae poterunt regales addere majus."

"If belly, sides and feet be well at ease, A prince's treasure can thee no more please."

Socrates in a fair, seeing so many things bought and sold, such a mult.i.tude of people convented to that purpose, exclaimed forthwith, "O ye G.o.ds what a sight of things do not I want?" 'Tis thy want alone that keeps thee in health of body and mind, and that which thou persecutest and abhorrest as a feral plague is thy physician and [3753]chiefest friend, which makes thee a good man, a healthful, a sound, a virtuous, an honest and happy man. For when virtue came from heaven (as the poet feigns) rich men kicked her up, wicked men abhorred her, courtiers scoffed at her, citizens hated her, [3754]and that she was thrust out of doors in every place, she came at last to her sister Poverty, where she had found good entertainment. Poverty and Virtue dwell together.

[3755] ------"O vitae tuta facultas Pauperis, angustique lares, o munera nondum Intellecta deum."

How happy art thou if thou couldst be content. "G.o.dliness is a great gain, if a man can be content with that which he hath," 1 Tim. vi. 6. And all true happiness is in a mean estate. I have a little wealth, as he said, [3756]_sed quas animus magnas facit_, a kingdom in conceit;

[3757] ------"nil amplius opto Maia nate, nisi ut propria haec mihi munera faxis;"

I have enough and desire no more.

[3758] "Dii bene fecerunt inopis me quodque pusilli Fecerunt animi"------

'tis very well, and to my content. [3759]_Vestem et fortunam concinnam potius quam laxam probo_, let my fortune and my garments be both alike fit for me. And which [3760]Sebastian Foscarinus, sometime Duke of Venice, caused to be engraven on his tomb in St. Mark's Church, "Hear, O ye Venetians, and I will tell you which is the best thing in the world: to contemn it." I will engrave it in my heart, it shall be my whole study to contemn it. Let them take wealth, _Stercora stercus amet_ so that I may have security: _bene qui latuit, bene vixit_; though I live obscure, [3761]

yet I live clean and honest; and when as the lofty oak is blown down, the silky reed may stand. Let them take glory, for that's their misery; let them take honour, so that I may have heart's ease. _Duc me O Jupiter et tu fatum_, [3762]&c. Lead me, O G.o.d, whither thou wilt, I am ready to follow; command, I will obey. I do not envy at their wealth, t.i.tles, offices;

[3763] "Stet quicunque volet potens Aulae culmine lubrico, Me dulcis saturet quies."

let me live quiet and at ease. [3764]_Erimus forta.s.se_ (as he comforted himself) _quando illi non erunt_, when they are dead and gone, and all their pomp vanished, our memory may flourish:

[3765] ------"dant perennes Stemmata non peritura Musae."

Let him be my lord, patron, baron, earl, and possess so many goodly castles, 'tis well for me [3766]that I have a poor house, and a little wood, and a well by it, &c.

"His me consolor victurum suavius, ac si Quaestor avus pater atque meus, patruusque fuissent."

"With which I feel myself more truly blest Than if my sires the quaestor's power possess'd."

I live, I thank G.o.d, as merrily as he, and triumph as much in this my mean estate, as if my father and uncle had been lord treasurer, or my lord mayor. He feeds of many dishes, I of one: [3767]_qui Christum curat, non multum curat quam de preciosis cibis stercus conficiat_, what care I of what stuff my excrements be made? [3768]"He that lives according to nature cannot be poor, and he that exceeds can never have enough," _totus non sufficit orbis_, the whole world cannot give him content. "A small thing that the righteous hath, is better than the riches of the unG.o.dly," Psal.

x.x.xvii. 19; "and better is a poor morsel with quietness, than abundance with strife," Prov. xvii. 7. Be content then, enjoy thyself, and as [3769]

Chrysostom adviseth, "be not angry for what thou hast not, but give G.o.d hearty thanks for what thou hast received."

[3770] "Si dat oluscula Mensa minuscula pace referta,"

"Ne pete grandia, Lautaque prandia lite repleta."

But what wantest thou, to expostulate the matter? or what hast thou not better than a rich man? [3771]"health, competent wealth, children, security, sleep, friends, liberty, diet, apparel, and what not," or at least mayst have (the means being so obvious, easy, and well known) for as he inculcated to himself,

[3772] "Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem, Jucundissime Martialis, haec sunt; Res non parta labore, sed relicta, Lis nunquam," &c.

I say again thou hast, or at least mayst have it, if thou wilt thyself, and that which I am sure he wants, a merry heart. "Pa.s.sing by a village in the territory of Milan," saith [3773]St. Austin, "I saw a poor beggar that had got belike his bellyful of meat, jesting and merry; I sighed, and said to some of my friends that were then with me, what a deal of trouble, madness, pain and grief do we sustain and exaggerate unto ourselves, to get that secure happiness which this poor beggar hath prevented us of, and which we peradventure shall never have? For that which he hath now attained with the begging of some small pieces of silver, a temporal happiness, and present heart's ease, I cannot compa.s.s with all my careful windings, and running in and out," [3774]"And surely the beggar was very merry, but I was heavy; he was secure, but I timorous. And if any man should ask me now, whether I had rather be merry, or still so solicitous and sad, I should say, merry. If he should ask me again, whether I had rather be as I am, or as this beggar was, I should sure choose to be as I am, tortured still with cares and fears; but out of peevishness, and not out of truth." That which St. Austin said of himself here in this place, I may truly say to thee, thou discontented wretch, thou covetous n.i.g.g.ard, thou churl, thou ambitious and swelling toad, 'tis not want but peevishness which is the cause of thy woes; settle thine affection, thou hast enough.

[3775] "Denique sit finis quaerendi, quoque habeas plus, Pauperiem metuas minus, et finire laborem Incipias; parto, quod avebas, utere."

Make an end of sc.r.a.ping, purchasing this manor, this field, that house, for this and that child; thou hast enough for thyself and them:

[3776] ------"Quod petis hic est, Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus."

'Tis at hand, at home already, which thou so earnestly seekest. But

------"O si angulus ille Proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum,"

O that I had but that one nook of ground, that field there, that pasture, _O si venam argenti fors quis mihi monstret--_. O that I could but find a pot of money now, to purchase, &c., to build me a new house, to marry my daughter, place my son, &c. [3777]"O if I might but live a while longer to see all things settled, some two or three years, I would pay my debts,"

make all my reckonings even: but they are come and past, and thou hast more business than before. "O madness, to think to settle that in thine old age when thou hast more, which in thy youth thou canst not now compose having but a little." [3778]Pyrrhus would first conquer Africa, and then Asia, _et tum suaviter agere_, and then live merrily and take his ease: but when Cyneas the orator told him he might do that already, _id jam posse fieri_, rested satisfied, condemning his own folly. _Si parva licet componere magnis_, thou mayst do the like, and therefore be composed in thy fortune.