as abundance of examples that I could give you sufficiently prove namely Alexander and Crassus and Licinius and Marcus Crassus and Ahab and Haman c. But CHAP. VIII THirdly to this is added as a further judgement that as the more he hath the more he coveteth so the neerer he is to his journeys end the more provision he makes for it Other vices are weakned with age and continuance onely covetousness and that odious sin of drunkenness grows stronger As the covetous wretch increaseth in yeers so he increaseth in covetousness What Pline writes of the Crocodile is fitly appliable to the miserly muckworm other creatures grow up to their height and then decay and dye onely the Crocodile grows to her last day The aged worldling though he have one foot in the grave yet his appetite to and persute of gain are but new born Yea though he hath out-lived all the teeth in his gums the hairs of his head the sight of his eyes the tast of his palate have he never so much yet he hath not enough and therefore would live to get more and covets as if he had a thousand generations to provide for He so lives as if he were never to dye and so dyes as if he were never to live again He fears all things like a mortal man sayes Seneca but he desires all things as if he were immortal Had it not been for sin death had never entered into the world and were it not for death sin especially the Misers sin would never go out of the world Lust is commonly the disease of youth ambition of middle age covetousness of old age And Plautus maketh it a wonder to see an old man beneficent But what saith By as covetousness in old men is most monstrous for what can be more foolish and ridiculous then to provide more mony and victuals for our journey when we are almost at our journyes end Wherefore remember thou O old man yea O remember that your Spring is past your Summer over-past and you are arrived at the fall of the leaf yea winter colours have already stained your head with gray and hoary hairs Remember also that if God in justice did not leave you and the Prince of darkness did not blinde you and your own heart did not grosly deceive you you could not possible be so senceless as you are in these three last mentioned miseries Thus three of the covetous mans woes are past but behold more are coming for God inflicts more plagues upon him then ever he did upon Pharaoh I 'le acquaint you only with seven more CHAP. IX FOurthly his thoughts are so taken up with what he wants or rather desires for he wants nothing but wit and a good heart that he not once mindes or cares for what he hath as you may see in Abab 1Kings 21. 4. and Haman Hester 5. 13. and Micha Judges 18. 24. What the covetous man hath he sees not his eyes are so taken up with what he wants yea the very desire of what he cannot get torments him and it is an heart-breaking to him not to add every day somewhat to his estate besides not to improve it so many hundreds every yeer will disparage his wisdom more to the world then any thing else he can do as I have heard such an one allege when I have told him my thoughts about perplexing himself But see the difference between him and one that hath either wit or grace whose manner it is even in case of the greatest losses to look both to what he hath lost and to what he hath left and instead of repining to be thankful that he hath lost no more having so much left that he might have been deprived of But sottish sensualists have a duller feeling of many good turns then of one ill they have not so sensible a feeling of their whole bodyes health as they have of their fingers aking nor are they so thankful for twenty yeers jollity as displeased for one dayes misery Whereas an humble and good man will see matter of thankfulness there where the proud and ingrateful finde matter of murmuring And so much of the fourth particular onely let me add as a sure rule He that in prosperity is unthankful will in adversity be unfaithful CHAP. X. FIftly the Devil by Gods just permission prevails by his temptations to make them think that the forbidden fruit is the sweetest of all fruits as he did our first parents Nor will any other content him each thing pleaseth him better that is not his own And as Publius observes other mens goods are far more esteemed by him Plines Woolf is a true emblem of this avaritious beast whose nature it is when he is eating his prey though never so hungry if he sees another beast feeding to forsake that which he is about to take the prey from the other Ahab was such a Wolf who could not content himself with his own though he injoyed a whole kingdom but he must wrest Naboths inheritance from him The commandment is express Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife servant Ox Asse nor any thing that is thy neighbors Exod. 20. 17. and all that fear God observe it but nothing more cross to the grain of a wicked mans heart to whom stoln waters are most sweet and hid bread the most pleasant Prov. 9. 17. For one so insatiably covets after another mans estate or office that he is never the better for his own Another so loves his neighbors wife that he even loaths and contemnes his own Thy neighbors wife to thee to him thines fairest sayes the Poet Hence hath that cursed speech issued from one too great to name That he could love his wife above any other if she were not his wife a word sufficient to rot out the tongue that spake it Solomon was a wise man and had tryed all things Oh that men would be so wise as to take his counsel and injoy their own with joy and gladness of heart drink waters out of their own Cistern and rejoyce with the wife of their youth so as her brests may satisfie them at all times and they be ravisht alwayes with her love rather then deprive themselves of that happiness by inbracing the bosom of a stranger and coveting that which is anothers Prov. 5. 15. to 21. Oh that thou wouldst be convinc'd that thy present condition what ever it is is the best for thee hadst thou but the wit to see it and that onely good use gives praise to earthly possessions that there are no riches comparable to content for this is the gift of God then surely thou wilt not much remember the dayes of thy life because God answereth the joy of thine heart Eceles. 5. 17 18 19. But no matter they love misery lose the comfort of their own brest and all outward blessings together with the tuition of God and they shall have it for he that makes
The Prevention of Poverty Together with the Cure of Melancholy Alias Discontent Or the best and surest way to Wealth and Happiness being Subjects very seasonable for these Times wherein all are Poor or not pleased or both when they need be neither By Rich. Younge of Roxwel in Essex Florilegus Imprimatur Joseph Caryl LONDONâ—â—â—nted by R. W. Leybourn and are to be sold by James Crumpe a Book-binder in Little Bartholomews Well-yard 1655. Of the Prevention of Poverty By R. Y. VErtue is distributive and loves not to bury benefits but to pleasure all she can And happy is he that leaves such a president for which both the present and future Ages shall praise him and praise God for him It was no small comfort I suppose to Cuthemberg Anaximenes Triptolemus Columbus and other the like whose happiness it was to finde out Printing the Dial the Plough to enrich the World with the best of Metals with the Loadstone and a thousand the like But had they smothered their conceptions as so many lights under a bushel and not communicated the same for the publick it had argued in them a great dearth of charity whereas now to the glory of God all men are the better for them Nor is any employment so honorable as for a man to serve his generation and be profitable to many When like the Moon we bestow the benefits received from God to the profit and commodity of others It is the Suns excellency that his bright rayes and beamns are dispersed into every corner of the Universe The Tragick Buskin as they say would fit all that should put it on Here is that will much benefit thee being made use of be thy condition good or bad rich or poor learned or unlearned mental or manual The which to conceal would argue in the Authour either too much lucre or too little love Even the Physician that hath a sovereigne Receipt and dieth unrevealing it robs the world of many blessings which might multiply after his death leaving to all survivers this collection that he once did good to others but to do himselfe a greater C. E. The Prevention of POVERTY Together with the Cure of MELANCHOLY Alias DISCONTENT Or the best and surest way to Wealth and Happinesse Being Subjects very seasonable for these Times wherein all are Poor or not pleased or both when they need be neither THE PREFACE SECT. 1. WHen a Gentleman in Athens had his plate taken away by Ahashucrus as he was at dinner he smiled upon his friends saying I thank God that his Higness hath left me any thing So whatever befals us this should be our meditation It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed Lam. 3. 22. Or this He that hath afflicted me for a time could have held me longer he that hath touched me in part could have stricken me in whole he that hath laid this upon my name or estate hath power to lay a greater rod both upon my body and soul without doing me the least wrong And indeed if we but think of our deliverance from the fire of Hell or that our names are writ in Heaven it is enough to make us both patient and thankful though the trifles we delight in be taken from us But most men are so far from this that if God does not answer their desires in every thing they will take pleasure in nothing they will slight all his present mercies and former favours because in one thing he crosses them Like Ahab they are more displeased for one thing they want or rather fain â—nd pretend they want or at least have no right unto than they are thankfull for a thousand things they enjoy though the least mercy they injoy is beyond their best merit They are ready to receive all while they return nothing but sin and disobedience wherein they more than abound for they have done more against God in one week than they have done for him ever since they were born Yea such sotts they are that if another displease them they will be revenged on themselves grow melancholy and discontent like foolish Children who will forbear their meat and grow sick of the sullens if never so little crost Yea though men have all their hearts can wish and might if they would and had but the wit and grace be as happy as any men alive yet some small trifle shall make them weary of themselves and every thing else as it fared with foolish Haman Esther 5. 13. More particularly if their purses grow light their hearts grow heavy yea as if men did delight to vex themselves how many are there that of happy make themselves miserable or more miserable than they need by looking upon miseries in multiplying glasses the opinion onely of being poor or fear that they may be so when they are old makes them never injoy a merry day when they neither want nor are like to doe and every man is so miserable as he thinks himself The tast of goods or evils does greatly depend on the opinion we have of them SECT. 2. Thus millions are miserable melancholy discontent by their own conceit when thousands would think themselves happy had they but a piece of their happiness Which discontent or melancholy occasions more murmuring amongsts us than ever there was among those Israelites in the wilderness an unthankfulness able to make or keep them poor and miserable and that everlastingly Indeed because judgement is not executed speedily Eccles. 8. 11. they think it no sin at all such is their ignorance Otherwise they might know that as the Israelites was so their murmuring is against even the holy One of Israel as Isaiah affirmed of Senuacherib 2 King 19. 22. And David of Goliah a Sam. 17. 36 45. The Lord sayes Moses to the people when they grumbled for want of bread and also to Datban and Abiram heareth your murmuring against him and what are we your murmurings are not against vs but against the Lord Exod. 16. 8. Numb. 16. 15 21. Onely this is the difference multitudes of them were destroyed suddenly even fourteen thousand and seven hundred at a clap yea they had all been consumed in a moment for their murmuring had not Moses stood up in the gap and interceded for them Numb. 16. 41. to 50. and 32. 10. to 14. and 26. 64 65 and 11. 12 33. and 14. 12 22 23. and 21. 5 6. Whereas millions among us do the like and are not stung with fiery Serpents as they were because they are reserved without repentance to a fiery Serpent in Hell Nor stricken with death temporall because reserved to death eternal But God is the same God still and as just now as ever though now under the Gospel instead of corporall judgements he inflicts many times spirituall as blindness of mind hardness of heart and finall impenitency the fore-runner of eternal destruction of body and soul in that burning lake Revel. 19 20. For why is their ruine recorded but
his fire with hay hath much smoak and but a little heat which leads me to the sixt particular CHAP. XI SIxthly another sore judgement which God inflicts upon the merciless mnckworm for his monstrous unthankfulness is he injoyes not a merry day no not a pleasant hour in seven yeers ye if you observe it he resembles Agelaustus Grandfather to Crassus who never laughed in all his life save once when he saw a mare eating of thistles or rather Anaxagorus Clazoenius who was never seen to laugh or smile from the day of his birth Joyes never so much as look in at the door of his heart worldly delights to him are but like delicate meates to him that hath lost his tast But O the cares fears anxieties sighs sorrows suspitions sad thoughts restless desires the horrors troubles tortures torments vexations distractions griefs girdes gripes grudgings repinings doubts dolors desperation that are the ordinary companions of the covetous How is he hurried with desires to get distracted with getting vexed for what he cannot get tortured for what he loseth or another gaineth troubled with fear of losing what he hath already gained yea his labor to gather riches is restless his care to keep them boundless his sorrow if he chance to lose them endless and his fear lest he should hereafter lack cureless Of all plagues sent into Egypt that of the Flies was one of the most troublesome for they never suffered men to rest for the more they were beaten off the more they came upon them so of all miseries and vexations that God layes upon worldlings this is not the least to be continually vexed and tormented with cares which they neither can nor indeed would beat off by any means they are able to devise for they rush in upon them in the morning so soon as they awake accompany them in the day forsake them not at night they follow them to bed and will not suffer them to sleep their thoughts will not permit them to sleep nor their sleep permit them to rest They afflict them in their dreams as giving them no quiet either by day or night as God threatneth to wicked men by the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 6. I could give you a large bill of particulars but fear of cloying is alwayes at hand to curb me wherefore take these few for a taste Want does not break so many sleeps for provision the next day as abundance does for increase His nights are as troublesome and unquiet as his dayes and his dayes as the dayes of Babylons downfall Never is more watchfulness then where is most purpose of wickedness see Micha 2. 1. Luk. 16. 8. Psal. 36. 4. Eccles. 5. 12. T was Chilons sentence Misery and Usury go commonly together If his plot be crossed and his hand cannot act that wickedness by day which his head hath devised by night he is taken with a fit of of melancholy sick of the sullens as was Ahab He thinks it a death that he cannot be suffered to dye it is a hell to him that the gates of hell are shut against him Having ingrossed a commodity if he cannot have his expected price for it or prevail not in his sute or cannot recover what he expected or if any one breaks in his debt or if he hear of a Taxe or some unavoidable payment and an hundred the like every of them adds to the care and grief of his heart which was ready to burst with care and grief before for he had rather be damned then damnified and in case he cannot have his will of another he will be revenged of himself like Nanplius King of Euboea who when he could not revenge his sons death upon Ulysses cast himself into the Sea Yea in case he sustain any great loss he is ready to make himself away as Menippus of Phenicia did who having lost his goods strangled himself Or like Dinarcus Phidon who at a certain loss cut his own throat to save the charge of a cord At least he feels more sorrow in losing his mony then ever he found pleasure in getting it nor will any condition content him for the lightness of his purse gives him an heavy heart which yet filled doth fill him with more care His medicin is his malady These rich men are no less troubled with that they possess lest they should lose it then poor men are for that they want In the day time he dares not go abroad for fear of robbing nor stay at home for fear of killing His thoughts are so troubled with fear of thieves that he cannot that he dares not sleep yea he fears a thief worse then the devil therefore will he be beholding to the devil for a spell to save him from the thief which once obtained a little Opium may rock his cares asleep and help him to a golden dream for all his minde and heart is to get mony if waking he talks of nothing but earth if sleeping he dreams of it Lastly as if all his delight were to vex himself he pines himself away with distrustful fear of want and projecting how he shall live hereafter and when he is old resembling Ventidius the Poet who would not be perswaded but he should dye a begger And Apicius the Romane who when he cast up his accounts and found but an hundered thousand crowns left murthered himself for fear he should be famished to death CHAP. XII SEventhly To the former miseries which a cruel Miser is justly plagued withall this may be added the dolefulness of his conscience for the sin of oppression lyes upon the soul as heavy as lead yea as the shaddow does ever follow the body so fear and desperation in all places and at all times do wait upon an evil conscience Sin armes a man against himself our peace ever ends with our innocency A Pithagorean bought a pair of shoos upon trust the Shoomaker dyes he is glad thinks them gained but a while after his conscience twitches him and becomes a continual chider he hereupon repairs to the house of the dead casts in his money with these words There take thy due thou livest to me though dead to all beside Micha stole from his mother eleven hundred shekels of silver but his complaining conscience made him to accuse himself and restore it again Judg. 17. Il gotten goods lye upon the conscience as raw meat upon a sick stomack which will never let a man be well or at ease untill he hath cast it up again by restitution Means ill gotten is to the getter as the Angels book was to Saint John When he eat it it was in his mouth as sweet as hony but when he had eaten it it became in his stomack as bitter as gall Rev. 10. 10. The which is notably illustrated Job 20. 12. to 20. which together with the whole Chapter is marvellous good for cruel and unmerciful men to read for I may not stand here to repeat it Sweetness is promised in
the bread of deceit but men finde it as gravel crashing between their teeth Nor will his troubled conscience suffer him to steal a sound sleep yea he sleeps as unquietly as if his pillow were stuft with Lawyers per-knives I may give ye a hint of these things from the word but onely God and he can tell how the remembrance of his forepast cozenages and oppression occasions his guilty conscience many secret wrings and pinches and gives his heart many a sore lash to increase the fear and horror of his soul every time he calls the same to remembrance which is not seldom As O poor wretches what do they indure how are they immerged in the horrors of a vulned conscience there is more ease in a nest of Hornets then under the sting of such a tormenting conscience He that hath this plague is like a man in debt who suspecteth that every bush he sees is a Sergant to arest and carry him away to prison It was Gods curse upon Cain when he had slain his brother Abel to suspect and fear that every one he met would kill him yea it makes him so afraid of every thing that a very Maulking frights him and it is much that he dares trust his Barber to shave him Dionysius was so troubled with fear and horror of conscience that not daring to trust his best friends with a razor he used to findge his beard with burning coals as Cicero records He is much like a Malefactor in prison who though he fare well yet is tormented with the thought of ensuing judgement It is the hand-writing on the wall that prints bloody characters in Belshazzars heart So that if any should deem a man the better or happier for being the richer he is very shallow as many looking on the outer face of things or see but the one side as they used to paint Antigonus that they might conceal his deformity on the other side see not how they smart in secret how their consciences gripe them Nor does any one know how the shoo wrings the foot but he that wears the same Or admit the best that can come as suppose they can stop consciences mouth for a time or with the musick of their mony play it asleep for the present yet when they lye upon their death-beds it will sting them to the quick For when death hesiegeth the body Satan will not fail to beleagure the soul yea then he will be sure to lay on load for as all corrupt humors run to the diseased and bruised part of the body so when conscience is once awakened all former sins and present crosses joyn together to make the bruise or sore more painful As every Creditor falls upon the poor man when he is once arested Or let it be granted that his conâ—cience never troubles him on his sick bed and that he have no bonds in his death as the Psalmist speaks Psal. 73. but departs like a Lamb which is not onely possible but probable for more by many thousands go to hell like Naball then like Judas more dye like sots in security then in despair of conscience yet all this is nothing for the sting of conscience here though it be intollerable is but a flea-biting to that he shall endure hereafter where the worm of conscience dyeth not and where the fire never goeth out This is part of sins wages and Satans reward We have sinned therefore our hearts are heavy Isa. 59. 11 12. The sorrows of them that offer to another God as do the covetous shall be multiplyed says holy David Psal. 16. 4. Yea Seneca an heathen could say that an evil life causeth an unquiet minde so that Satans government is rather a bondage then a government unto which Christ giveth up those that shake off his own What his government is you may partly guess at by the servile slaveries he puts his subjects upon As O the many hard services which Satan puts his servants upon and what a bad Master is he when we read that Origen at his onely appointment made himself an Eunuch Democritus put out his own eyes Crates cast his money into the Sea Thracius cut down all the Vines whereas David did none of these Ahaz made his son to pass through the fire Jephta sacrificed his onely daughter as the text seems to import Wicked men think they do God good service in putting his children to death but where do we finde any Religious Israelite or servant of God at such cost or when did God require this of his servants The Prophets and Apostles never whipt nor lanced themselves but Baals Priests did this and more And so of the Papists those hypocrites of late yeers and the Pharisees of old How many sleepless nights and restless dayes and wretched shifts treacherous and bloody plots and practises does covetousness and ambition cost men which the humble and contented Christian is unacquainted with How does the covetous mans heart droop wish his Mammon How does he turmoile and vex his spirit torment his conscience and make himself a very map of misery and a sink of calamity it is nothing so with Christs servants CHAP. XIII I Have much more to enlarge of the miseries of unmerciful and ingrate full Misers but before I speak of them I will give you the reasons and uses of these already dispatcht wherein I will be as brief as may be You see that God may give men riches in wrath and so as they shall be never the better for them but the worse Now that you may not think it any strange thing observe the reasons why and how justly they are so served The first Reason is the unmerciful Misers monstrous unthankfulness for those millions of mercies he hath received from God of which I shall give you an account in the second part this causes God either not at all to give him or in giving him riches to add this you have heard as a curse withall He is unthankful for what he hath therefore have he never so much it shall not be worth thanks He is cruel to the poor therefore he shall be as cruel to himself The poor shall have no comfort of what he hath therefore himself shall have as little The covetous are cozen Germans to the nine leapers thankless persons They are so much for receiving that they never mind what they have received He deals with God as a dog doth with his master who as Austine observes devoureth by and by whatever he can catch and gapeth continually for more Nor hath covetousness any thing so proper to it as to be ingrateful A greedy man is never but shamefully unthankful for unless he have all he hath nothing He must have his will or God shall not have a good look from him yea as the Mill if it go empty makes an unpleasant and odious noise so the covetous man if the Lord does not satisfie his desires in every thing he will most wickedly murmur and blaspheme his
he cares not what the people say so his baggs be full He drowns the noise of the peoples curses with the musick of his money as the Italians in a great thunder ringe their bells shoot off their Canons Nor hath pride so great power over him as covetousness He is not like Simon in Lucian who having got a little wealth changed his name from Simon to Simonides for that there were so many beggers of his kin and set the house on fire wherin he was born because no body should point at it Nevertheless though he prefers gaine before an honest reputation yet the word of God informs us that gain got with an ill name is great loss and certainly that man cannot be sparing in any thing that is commendable who is prodigal of his reputation But herein lies the difference gracious and tender hearts are galled with that which the carnally-minded slight and make nothing of Secondly they are not wise enough to know what a singular blessing it is to have a name spotless a report unreprovable and a fame for honesty and goodness as it fared with Joseph and Ruth and David and Samuel and Ester and Solomon and our Saviour and Cornelius and those worthies mentioned in the eleventh to the Hebrews who all obtained a good report which proceeds of the Lord and is bestowed as a great blessing upon such as he will honor Gen. 39. 21. Zeph. 3. 19 20. Act. 10. 22. Rom. 16. 19. Ruth 2. and 3. Chapters which makes wise Solomon say that a good name is better then a good ointment and to be chosen above great riches Prov. 22. 1. I know well that this miserly muckworm this for did pinchgut the very basest of creatures that look upwards does keep up his credit with some base ignoble persons some blind Moales like himself as being able to discern nothing but the barke or dregs of things For they account of men as we do of baggs of money prize them best that weigh heaviest and measure out their love and respect by the Subsidy Book for onely by their wealth they value themselves and onely by their wealth as Camels by their burthens be they valued If he have goods enough he both thinks himself and others think him good enough they think he is best that hath most and repute him most worthy that is most wealthy and naught is he be needy accounting poverty the greatest dishonesty Yea as if credit and reputation were onely intailed on the rich credit grows just as fast as wealth here in the City and in the country reputation is measured by the Aker and the words weigh according to the purse But others that are able to distinguish between good and evil know that either these are fools or Solomon was not wise Nor does he think himself more honorable then wise and good men think him base And certainly if such muckworms were as odious to the rest as they are to me they would appear in the street like Owls in the day time with whom no honest man would converse And why should I prefer him before a piece of copper that prefers a piece of gold before his Maker God commanded in the old Law that whatsoever did go with his breast upon the ground should be abomination to us how much more should we abominate the man who is indued with reason and a soul that hath glued his heart and soul unto a piece of earth But of this enough CHAP. XVII NInthly the next is That as the unmerciful Miser is all for sparing so his heir shall be all for wasting He lives poorly and penuriously all his life that he may dye rich He walks in a shaddow saith the Psalmist and disquieteth himself in vain heaping up riches not knowing who shall gather them Psal. 39. 6. As he hath reapt that which another sowed so another shall thrash that which he hath reaped He hordes up not knowing who shall injoy it and commonly they injoy it who lay it out as fast He takes onely the bitter and leaves the sweet for others perhaps those that wish him hanged upon condition they had his means the sooner Or possible it is he may have children which if he have he loves them so much better then himself that he will voluntarily be miserable here and hereafter that they may be happy He is willing to go in a thred-bare coat to starve his body lose his credit wound his conscience torment his heart and minde with fears and cares yea he can finde in his heart to damne his own soul and go to hell that he may raise his house leave his heir a great estate as thinking his house and habitation shall continue for ever even from generation to generation and call their lands by his name as the Psalmist shews Psalm 49. 11. He is careful to provide his children portions while he provides no portion of comfort for his own welfare either here or hereafter He provides for his childrens bodies not for their souls to shew that he begat not their souls but their bodies He leaves a fair estate for the worser part nothing for the estate of the better part He desires to leave his children great rather then good and is more ambitious to have his sons Lords on earth then Kings in heaven But as he that provides not for their temporal estate is worse then an infidel 1 Tim. 5. 8. So he that provides not for their eternal estate is little better then a devil which yet is the cace of nine parts of the parents throughout the Land But observe how his children requite him again and how God requites him in his children for commonly they are such as never give him thanks nor in the least lament his loss perhaps they mourn at his funeral yet not for that he is dead but because he died no sooner Nor is it any rare thing for men to mourn for him dead whom they would by no means have still to be alive Yea for the most part it is but a fashionable sorrow which the son makes shew of at his fathers death as having many a day wisht for that hour A sorrow in shew onely like that of Jacobs sons when they had sold their brother Joseph who profest a great deal of grief for his loss when inwardly they rejoyced Have ye not heard of a prodigal young heir that incouraged his companions with come let us drink revel throw the house out at windows the man in Scarlet will pay for all meaning his father who was a Judge but he adjudged the patrimony from him to one of his yonger sons more obedient And good reason he had for it for to give riches to the ryotous is all one as to pour precious liquor into a seeve that will hold no liquid substance which occasioned the Rhodians and Lydians to enact several laws that those sons which followed not their fathers in their vertues but lived viciously should be disinherited and their