THE FIRST BOOK 19 



labours chiefly to lucre and increase, it were good to 

 leave the commonplace in commendation of poverty 

 to some friar to handle, to whom much was attributed 

 by Machiavel in this point ; when he said, That the 

 kingdom of the clergy had been long before at an end, 

 if the reputation and reverence towards the poverty 

 of friars had not borne out the scandal of the super 

 fluities and excesses of bishops and prelates. So 

 a man might say that the felicity and delicacy of 

 princes and great persons had long since turned to 

 rudeness and barbarism, if the poverty of learning had 

 not kept up civility and honour of life : but without 

 any such advantages, it is worthy the observation what 

 a reverent and honoured thing poverty of fortune was 

 for some ages in the Roman state, which nevertheless 

 was a state without paradoxes. For we see what Titus 

 Livius saith in his introduction : Caeterum aut me 

 amor negotii suscepti fallit, aut nulla unquam respublica 

 nee major, nee sanctior, nee bonis exemplis ditior fuit ; 

 nee in quam tarn serae avaritia luxuriaque iinmigra- 

 verint ; nee ubi tantus ac tarn diu paupertati ac 

 parsimoniae honos fuerit. We see likewise, after that 

 the state of Rome was not itself, but did degenerate, 

 how that person that took upon him to be counsellor 

 to Julius Caesar after his victory where to begin his 

 restoration of the state, maketh it of all points the 

 most summary to take away the estimation of wealth : 

 * Verum haec et omnia mala pariter cum honore 

 pecuniae desinent ; si neque magistratus, neque alia 

 vulgo cupienda, venalia erunt. To conclude this point, 

 as it was truly said, that Rubor est virtutis color, though 

 sometime it come from vice ; so it may be fitly said 

 that Paupertas est virtutis fortuna, though sometimes 

 it may proceed from misgovernment and accident. 

 Surely Salomon hath pronounced it both in censure, 

 Qui festinat ad divitias non erit insons ; and in 

 precept ; Buy the truth, and sell it not ; and so of 

 wisdom and knowledge ; judging that means were to 

 be spent upon learning, and not learning to be applied 

 to means. And as for the privateness or obscureness 



