And yet God deliver us from pinching poverty; and grant, that having a
competency, we may be content and thankful. Let not us repine, or so
much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt, if we see another
abound with riches; when, as God knows, the cares that are the keys
that keep those riches hang often so heavily at the rich man's girdle, that
they clog him with weary days and restless nights, even when others
sleep quietly. We see but the outside of the rich man's happiness: few
consider him to be like the silk-worm, that, when she seems to play, is,
at the very same time, spinning her own bowels, and consuming
herself; and this many rich men do, loading themselves with corroding
cares, to keep what they have, probably, unconscionably got Let us,
therefore, be thankful for health and a competence; and above all, for a
quiet conscience.
Let me tell you, Scholar, that Diogenes walked on a day, with his
friend, to see a country fair; where he saw ribbons, and looking-glasses,
and nutcrackers, and fiddles, and hobby-horses, and many other
gimcracks; and, having observed them, and all the other finnimbruns
that make a complete country-fair, he said to his friend, " Lord, how
many things are there in this world of which Diogenes hath no need!"
And truly it is so, or might be so, with very many who vex and toil
themselves to get what they have no need of.
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