rerum inhonestam & insatiabilem cupiditatem, an unhonest and unsatiable desire of gain; and in one of his. Epistles compares it to Hell; "which devoures all, and yet never hath enough, a bottomeless pit," an endless misery; in quem scopulum avaritia cadaverosi senes utplurimùm impingunt, and that which is their greatest corrosive, they are in continual suspition, fear, and distrust. He thinkes his own wife and children are so many theeves, and go about to cozen him, his servants are all false:

"Rem suam periisse, seque eradicarier,

Et divûm atque hominum clamat continuò fidem,
De suo tigillo si qua exit foras."

If his doores creek, then out he cryes anon,
His goods are gone, and he is quite undone.

Timidus Plutus, an old proverb, As fearful as Plutus: so doth
Aristophanes and Lucian bring him in fearful still, pale, anxi-
ous, suspitious, and trusting no man, "They are afraid of
tempests for their corne; they are afraid of their friends least
they should ask something of them, beg or borrow; they are
afraid of their enemies least they hurt them, theeves least they
rob them; they are afraid of war and afraid of peace, afraid of
rich and afraid of poor; afraid of all." Last of all, they are
afraid of want, that they shall die beggars, which makes they
lay up still, and dare not use that they have: what if a dear
year come, or dearth, or some loss? and were it not that they
are loth to lay out money on a rope, they would be hanged
forthwith, and sometimes die to save charges, and make away
themselves, if their corne and cattle miscarry, though they have
abundance left, as Agellius notes. Valerius makes mention
of one that in a famine sould a Mouse for 200 pence, and fa-
mished himself: Such are their cares, griefes and perpetual
fears. These symptomes are elegantly expressed by Theo-
phrastus in his Character of a covetous man; "b lying in bed,
he asked his wife whether she shut the trunkes, and chests fast,
the capcase be sealed, and whether the Hall door be bolted;

a

Avarus vir inferno est similis, &c. modum non habet, hoc egentior quo plura habet. "Erasm. Adag. chil. 3. cent. 7. pro. 72. Nulli fidentes omnium formidant opes, ideo pavidum malum vocat Euripides: metuunt tempes tates ob frumentum, amicos ne rogent, inimicos ne lædant, fures ne rapiant, bellum timent, pacem timent, summos, medios, infimos. * Hall Char. y Agellius lib. 3. cap. 1. interdum eo sceleris perveniunt ob lucrum, ut vitam propriam commutent. 2 Lib. 7. cap. 6. * Omnes perpetuo morbo agitantur, surpicatur omnes timidus, sibique ob aurum insidiari putat, nunquam quiescens, Plin. Prooem. lib. 14. Cap. 18. in lecto jacens interrogat uxorem an arcam probe clausit, an capsula, &c. E lecto surgens nudus & absque calceis, accensa lucerna omnia obiens & lustrans, & vix somno indulgens.

and

C

and though she say all is well, he riseth out of his bed in his shirt, bare foot and barelegged, to see whether it be so, with a dark Lanthorne searching every corner, scarce sleeping a wink all night. Lucian in that pleasant and witty dialogue called Gallus, brings in Mycillus the Cobler disputing with his Cocke, sometimes Pythagoras; where after much speech Pro and Con, to prove the happiness of a meane estate, and discontents of a rich man, Pythagoras's Cock in the end, to illustrate by examples that which he had said, brings him to Gnyphon the Usurer's house at mid-night, and after that to Eucrates; whom they found both awake, casting up their accounts, and telling of their money, lean dry, pale and anxious, still suspecting least some body should make a hole through the wall, and so get in; or if a Rat or Mouse did but stir, starting upon a sudden, and running to the door to see whether all were fast. Plautus, in his Aulularia, makes old Euclio commanding Staphyla his wife to shut the doors fast, and the fire to be put out, least any body should make that an errant to come to his house; when he washed his hands, he was loath to fling away the foul water, complaining that he was undone, because the smoak got out of his roofe. And as he went from home, seeing a Crow scrat upon the muck-hill, returned in all hast, taking it for malum omen, an ill signe, his money was digged up; with many such. He that will but observe their actions, shall find these and many such passages not fained for sport, but really performed, verified indeed by such covetous and miserable wretches, and that it is,

*manifesta phrenesis

Ut locuples moriaris egenti vivere fato,"

A meer madness, to live like a wretch, and die rich.

SUBSEC. XIII.

Love of Gaming, &c. and pleasures immoderate; Causes,

T is a wonder to see, how many poor, distressed, miserable

begging for an almes, that have been well descended, and sometimes in flourishing estate, now ragged, tattered, and ready to

d Cave quequã alienum

• Curis extenuatus, vigilans & secu supputans. in ædes intromiseris. Ignem extingui volo, ne causæ quidquã sit quod te quisquam quæritet. Si bona fortuna veniat ne intromiseris; Occlude sis fores ambobus pessulis. Discrutior animi quia domo abeundum est mihi: Nimis hercule nvitus abeo, nec quid agam scio. Ploras aqua profundere, &c. periit dữ fiumus de tigillo exit foras.

* Juv. Sat. 14.

be starved, lingring out a painful life, in discontent and grief of body and minde, and all through immoderate lust, gaming, pleasure and riot. 'Tis the common end of all sensual Epicures and brutish prodigals, that are stupified and carried away headlong with their several pleasures and lusts. Cebes in his table, S. Ambrose in his second book of Abel and Cain, and amongst the rest Lucian in his tract de Mercede conductis, hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his picture of Opulentia, whom he faines to dwell on the top of a high mount, much sought after by many suiters; at their first coming they are generally entertained by Pleasure and Dalliance, and have all the content that possibly may be given, so long as their money lasts; but when their means fail, they are contemptibly thrust out at a back door, headlong, and there left to Shame, Reproach, Despair. And he at first that had so many attendants, parasites, and followers, young and lusty, richly arrayd, and all the dainty fare that might be had, with all kinde of welcome and good respect, is now upon a sudden stript of all, pale, naked, old, diseased and forsaken, cursing his stars, and ready to strangle himself; having no other company but Repentance, Sorrow, Grief, Derision, Beggery, and Contempt, which are his daily attendants to his lives end. As the prodigall son had exquisite musick, merry company, dainty fare at first; but a sorrowful reckoning in the end; so have all such vain delights and their followers. Tristes voluptatum exitus, & quisquis voluptatum suarum reminisci volet, intelliget, as bitter as gall and wormewood is their last; grief of mind, madness it self. The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are Cardes, Dice, Hawkes, and Hounds, Insanum venandi studium, one cals it, insane substructiones: their mad structures, disports, playes, &c. when they are unseasonably used, imprudently handled, and beyond their fortunes. Some men are consumed by mad phantastical buildings, by making Galleries, Cloisters, Tarraces, Walkes, Orchards, Gardens, Pooles, Rillets, Bowers, and such like places of pleasure; Inutiles domos, Xenophon cals them, which howsoever they be delightsome things in themselves, and acceptable to all beholders, an ornament, and befitting some great men; yet unprofitable to others, and the sole overthrow of their estates. Forestus in his observations hath an example of such a one that became melancholy upon the like occasion, having consumed his substance in an unpro

h

f Ventricosus, nudus, pallidus, læva pudorem occultans, dextra seipsum strangulans, occurrit autem excunti poenitentia his miserum conficiens, &c. Luke 15. Boethius. In Oeconom. Quid si nunc ostendam eos qui magna vi argenti domus inutiles ædificant, inquit Socrates. fitable

m

n

fitable building, which would afterward yield him no advantage. Others, I say, are overthrown by those mad sports of Hawking and hunting; honest recreations, and fit for some great men, but not for every base inferior person; whilst they will maintain their Faulkoners, dogs, and hunting Nags, their wealth, saith Salmutze, "runs away with hounds, and their fortunes flie away with Hawkes:" They persecute beasts so long, till in the end they themselves degenerate into beasts, as Agrippa taxeth them, Acteon like, for as he was eaten to death by his own dogs, so do they devoure themselves and their patrimonies, in such idle and unnecessary disports, neglecting in the mean time their more necessary business, and to follow their vocations. Over-mad too sometimes are our great men in delighting, and doting too much on it. "When they drive poor husbandmen from their tillage, as P Sarisburiensis objects, polycrat. l. 1. c. 4. " fling down countrey Farmes, and whole Townes, to make Parkes, and Forests, starving men to feed beasts, and punishing in the mean time such a man that shall molest their game, more severely then him that is otherwise a common hacker, or a notorious thief." But great men are some ways to be excused, the meaner sort have no evasion why they should not be counted inad. Poggius the Florentine tels a merry story to this purpose, condemning the folly and impertinent business of such kinde of persons. A physitian of Millan, saith he, that cured mad men, had a pit of water in his house, in which he kept his patients, some up to the knees, some to the girdle, some to the chin, pro modo insaniæ, as they were more or less affected. One of them by chance, that was well recovered, stood in the door, and seeing a gallant ride by with a Hawk on his fist, well mounted, with his Spaniels after him, would needs know to what use all this preparation served; he made answer, to kill certain fowle; the tient demanded again, what his fowle might be worth which he killed in a year; he replyed, 5 or 10 crownes; and when he urged him farther what his Dogs, Horse, and Hawkes stood

m

pa

Sarisburiensis Polycrat. 1. 1. c. 4. venatores omnes adhuc institutionem redolent centaurorum. Raro invenitur quisquam eorum modestus & gravis, raro continens, & ut credo sobrius unquam. Pancirol. Tit. 23. avolant opes cum accipitre. Insignis venatorum stultitia, & supervacania cura eorum, qui dum nimium venationi insistunt, ipsi abjecta omni humanitate in feras degenerant, ut Acteon, &c. a Sabin. in Ovid Metamor. Agrippa de vanit. scient. Insanum venandi studium, du à novalibus arcentur agricolæ subtrahunt prædia rusticis, agricolonis præcluduntur sylvæ & prata pastoribus ut au geantur pascua feris. -Majestatis reus agricola si gustarit. PA novalibus suis arcentur agricolæ, dum feræ habeant vagandi libertatem: istis, ut pascua augeantur, prædia subtrahuntur, &c. Sarisburiensis Feris qua hominibus æquiores. Cambd. de Guil. Conq, qui 36 Ecclesias matrices depopulatus est ad forestam novam. Mat. Paris.

him in, he told him 400 Crowns; with that the patient bad be gone, as he loved his life and welfare, for if our master come and finde thee here, he will put thee in the pit amongst mad men up to the chin: Taxing the madness and folly of such vain men that spend themselves in those idle sports, neglecting their business and necessary affaires. Leo decimus, that hunting Pope, is much discommended by Jovius in his life, for his immoderate desire of hauking and hunting, in so much that (as he saith) he would sometimes live about Ostia weeks and months together, leave suiters unrespected, Buls and pardons unsigned, to his own prejudice, and many private men's losse. "And if he had been by chance crossed in his sport, or his game not so good, he was so impatient, that he would revile and miscall many times men of great worth with most bitter taunts, look so sowre, be so angry and waspish, so grieved and molested, that it is incredible to relate it." But if he had good sport, and been well pleased on the other side, incredibili munificentia, with unspeakable bounty and munificence he would reward all his fellow hunters, and deny nothing to any suiter when he was in that mood. To say truth, 'tis the common humour of all gamesters, as Galatæus observes, if they win, no men living are so jovial and merry, but if they lose, though it be but a trifle, two or three games at Tables, or a dealing at Cards for two pence a game, they are so cholerick and tetty that no man may speak with them, and break many times into violent passions, oaths, imprecations, and unbeseeming speeches, little differing from mad men for the time. Generally of all Gamesters and gaming, if it be excessive, thus much we may conclude, that whether they win or lose for the present, their winnings are not Munera fortune, sed insidie, as that wise Seneca determines, not fortune's gifts, but baits, the common Catastrophe is beggary, Ut pestis vitam, sic adimit alea pecuniam, as the plague takes away life, doth gaming goods, for omnes nudi, inopes & egeni;

X

"Alea Scylla vorax, species certissima furti, Non contenta bonis animum quoque perfida mergit, Fœda, furax, infamis, iners, furiosa, ruina."

Tom. 2. de vitis illustrium, 1. 4. de vit. Leon. 10. perdite studebat & aucupiis.

• Venationibus adco ut summos sæpe viros acerbissimis contumeliis oneraret, & incredibile est quali Aut infeliciter venatus tam impatiens inde, vultus animique habitu dolorem iracundiamque præferret, &c. autem hoc a natura insitum est, ut doleat sicubi erraverit aut deceptus sit. Unicuique Juven. Sat. 8. Nec enim loculis comitantibus itur, Ad casum tabulæ, posita sed luditur arca Lemnius instit. ca. 44. mendaciorum quidem, & perjuriorum & paupertatis mater est alea, nullam habens patrimonii reverentiam, quum illud effuderit, sensim in furta delabitur & rapinas. Saris. polycrat. 1. 1. c. 5. Damhoderus. Petrar. dial. 27.

z Dan. Souter.

For