444 ADVICE TO SIR GEORGE VILLIERS. 



the fashion, be avoided. I have heard, that in Spain, 

 a grave nation, whom in this I wish we might imitate, 

 they do allow the players and courtesans the vanity 

 of rich and costly clothes ; but to sober men and 

 matrons they permit it not upon pain of infamy ; a 

 severer punishment upon ingenuous natures than a 

 pecuniary mulct. 



4. The excess of diet in costly meats and drinks 

 fetched from beyond the seas would be avoided ; wise 

 men will do it without a law, I would there might be 

 a law to restrain fools. The excess of wine costs the 

 kingdom much, and returns nothing but surfeits and 

 diseases ; were we as wise as easily we might be, 

 within a year or two at the most, if we would needs 

 be drunk with wines, we might be drunk with half 

 the cost. 



5. If we must be vain and superfluous in laces 

 and embroideries, which are more costly than either 

 warm or comely, let the curiosity be the manufacture 

 of the natives ; then it should not be verified of us, 

 &quot; materiam superabat opus.&quot; 



6. But instead of crying up all things, which are 

 either brought from beyond sea, or wrought here by 

 the hands of strangers, let us advance the native 

 commodities of our own kingdom, and employ our 

 countrymen before strangers ; let us turn the wools 

 of the land into clothes and stuffs of our own growth, 

 and the hernp and flax growing here into linen cloth 

 and cordage; it would set many thousand hands 

 on work, and thereby one shilling worth of the ma- 



