ADVICE ABOUT THE CHARTERHOUSE. 377 



greatness of relief, accumulated in one place, doth 

 rather invite a swarm and surcharge of poor, than 

 relieve those that are naturally bred in that place ; 

 like to ill-tempered medicines, that draw more 

 humour to the part than they evacuate from it. 

 But chiefly I rely upon the reason that I touched in 

 the beginning, that in these great hospitals the 

 revenues \vill draw the use, and not the use the 

 revenues ; and so, through the mass of the wealth, 

 they will swiftly tumble down to a misemployment. 

 And if any man say, that in the two hospitals 

 in London there is a precedent of greatness con 

 curring with good employment ; let him consider 

 that those hospitals have annual governors, that they 

 are under the superior care and policy of such a 

 state as the city of London ; and chiefly, that their 

 revenues consist not upon certainties, but upon 

 casualties and free gifts ; which gifts would be 

 withheld, if they appeared once to be perverted ; so 

 as it keepeth them in a continual good behaviour 

 and awe to employ them aright ; none of which 

 points do match with the present case. 



The next consideration may be, whether this in 

 tended hospital, as it hath a more ample endowment 

 than other hospitals have, should not likewise work 

 upon a better subject than other poor ; as that it 

 should be converted to the relief of maimed soldiers, 

 decayed merchants, householders aged, and destitute 

 churchmen, and the like ; whose condition, being of 

 a better sort than loose people and beggars, deserveth 

 both a more liberal stipend and allowance, and some 



