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ESSAY XXXIV. OF RICHES.

CANNOT call riches better than the baggage of virtue; the Roman word is better-impedimenta;' for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue-it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory. Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution; the rest is but conceit; so saith Solomon, 'Where much is, there are many to consume it; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes?" The personal fruition in any man cannot reach to feel great riches: there is a custody of them, or a power of dole,' and a donative of them, or a fame of them, but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices are set upon little stones or rarities-and what works of ostentation are undertaken, because there might seem to be some use of great riches? But then, you will say, they may be of use to buy men out of dangers or troubles; as Solomon saith, Riches are as a stronghold in the imagination of the rich man:" but this is excellently expressed, that it is an imagination, and not always in fact; for, certainly great riches have sold more inen than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly; yet have no abstract or friarly contempt of them, but distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus, In studio rei amplificandæ, apparebat, non avaritiæ prædam, sed instrumentum bonitati quæri." Hearken also to Solomon, and beware of hasty gathering of riches: 'Qui festinat ad divitias, non erit insons." The poets feign that when Plutus (which is riches) is sent from Jupiter, he limps, and goes slowly,

' Impedimenta. Hindrances.

'Dole. A dealing out, or distribution.

'It was your pre-surmise,

Eccles. v. 11

That in the dole of blows, your son might drop.'

Because. For the reason that; in order that. See page 227.

• Proverbs x. 15: cf. xxviii. 11.

In his desire of increasing his riches, he sought not, it was evident, the gra tification of avarice, but the means of beneficence.'-Cic. P. Rabir. 2.

''He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.'-Prov. xxviii, 20.

but when he is sent from Pluto, he runs, and is swift of foot; meaning, that riches gotten by good means and just labour pace slowly, but when they come by the death of others (as by the course of inheritance, testaments, and the like), they come tumbling upon a man: but it might be applied likewise to Pluto taking him for the Devil; for when riches come from the Devil (as by fraud, and oppression, and unjust means) they come upon' speed. The ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul: parsimony is one of the best, and yet is not innocent, for it withholdeth men from works of liberality and charity. The mprovement of the ground is the most natural obtaining of riches, for it is our great mother's blessing, the earth; but it is slow: and yet, where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly. I knew a nobleman of England that had the greatest audits of any man in my time, a great grazier, a great sheep master, a great timber man, a great collier, a great corn master, a great lead man, and so of iron, and a number of the like points of husbandry; so as the earth seemed a sea to him in respect of the perpetual importation. It was truly observed by one, 'That himself came very hardly to little riches, and very easily to great riches;' for when a man's stock is come to that, that he can expect the prime of markets, and overcome those bargains, which for their greatness are few men's money, and the partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot but increase mainly. The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are honest, and furthered by two things, chiefly, by diligence, and by a good name for good and fair dealing; but the gains of bargains are of, a more doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon others' necessity; broke by servants,

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'Take upon command what help we have.'-Shakespere.

Expect. To wait for. Elihu had expected till Job had spoken.'—Job xxxii. 14 (marginal reading).

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... Expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.'-Heb. x. 13 Overcome.

Come upon.

'Can such things be,

And overcome us, like a summer's cloud,
Without our special wonder?'-Shakespere.

Mainly. Greatly.

'You, mainly are stirred up.'-Shakespere.

• Vocation. See page 20.

Broke. To traffic; to deal meanly. This divine, contrary to his profession,

and instruments to draw them on; put off others cunningly that would be better chapmen,' and the like practices, which are crafty and naughty. As for the chopping of bargains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell over again, that commonly grindeth double, both upon the seller and upon the buyer. Sharings do greatly enrich, if the hands be well chosen that are trusted. Usury is the certainest means of gain, though one of the worst, as that whereby a man doth eat his bread, 'in sudore vultus alieni,” and besides, doth plough upon Sundays: but yet certain though it be, it hath flaws: for that the scriveners and brokers do value unsound men to serve their own turn. The fortune in being the first in an invention, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in riches; as it was with the first sugar man in the Canaries: therefore, if a man can play the true logician, to have as well judgment as invention, he may do great matters, especially if the times be fit. He that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great riches; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break and come to poverty: it is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses. Monopolies, and coemption of wares for re-sale, where they are not restrained, are great means to enrich; especially if the party have intelligence what things are like to come into request, and so store himself beforehand. Riches gotten by service, though it be of the best rise, yet when they are gotten by flattery, feeding humours, and other servile conditions, they may be placed amongst the worst. As for 'fishing for testaments and executorships,' (as Tacitus saith of Seneca, 'Testamenta et orbos tanquam indagine capi') it is yet worse, by how much men submit themselves to meaner persons than in service.

Believe not much them that seem to despise riches, for they despise them that despair of them; and none worse when they come to them. Be not penny-wise; riches have wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, sometimes they must be

took upon him to broke for him in such a manner as was never precedented by any.'-Proceedings in the House of Commons against Lord Bacon.

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Chapmen. Purchasers.

'Fair Diomede, you do as chapmen do—

Dispraise the thing that they intend to buy.'-Shakespere.

2 Naught, or Naughty. Bad. The water is naught, and the ground barren.

2 Kings, xi. 19.

Value. Represent as trustworthu.

In the sweat of another's brow.'

Wills and childless parents, taken as with a net.'-Tacit. Ann. xiii. 42.

set flying to bring in more. Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or to the Public; and moderate portions prosper best in both. A great estate left to an heir, is as a lure to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, if he be not the better stablished' in years and judgment: likewise, glorious" gifts and foundations are like sacrifices without salt; and but the painted sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrify and corrupt inwardly. Therefore measure not thine advancements by quantity, but frame them by measure: and defer not charities till death: for, certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than his own.

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'Stablish. To establish. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and

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work.'-2 Thess. xi. 16, 17.

'Stop effusion of our Christian blood,

And stablish quietness on every side.'—Shakespere.

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'Glorious. Splendid. Were not this glorious casket stored.'-Shakespere. Latin: Fundationes gloriosæ et splendidæ in usus publicos.'

Advancement. Advances; gifts in money or property. The jointure and advancement of the lady was the third part of the Principality of Wales.-Bacon's Hist.

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ANNOTATIONS.

'I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue; the Roman word is better, impedimenta

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it hindereth the march.'

In reference to the effect on the character, both of individuals and nations, of wealth and poverty, I will take leave to insert some extracts from the Lectures on Political Economy.

'We should attend to the distinction between an individual and a community, when viewed as possessing a remarkable share of wealth. The two cases differ immensely, as far as the moral effects of wealth are concerned. For, first, the most besetting probably of all the temptations, to which a rich man, as such, is exposed, is that of pride—an arrogant disdain of those poorer than himself. Now, as all our ideas of great and small, in respect of wealth, and of everything else, are comparative, and as each man is disposed to compare himself with those around him, it is plain, the danger of priding one's self on wealth, affects exclusively, or nearly so, an individual who is rich, compared with his own countrymen; and especially one who is richer than most others in his own walk of life, and who reside in his own neighbourhood. Some degree of national pride there may be, connected with national wealth; but this is not in general near so much the foundation of national pride as a supposed superiority in valour, or in mental cultivation: and at any rate it seldom comes into play. An Englishman who is poor, compared with other Englishmen, is not likely to be much puffed up with pride at the thought of belonging to a wealthy community. Nay, even though he should himself possess property, which, among the people of Timbuctoo, or the aboriginal Britons, would be reckoned great wealth, he will be more likely to complain of his poverty, than to be filled with self-congratulation at his wealth, if most of those of his own class are as rich or richer than himself. And even one who travels or resides abroad, does not usually regard with disdain (on the score of wealth at least) those foreigners who are individually as well off in that respect as himself, though their nation may be poorer than his. And, on the other hand, those individuals who, in a

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