2o6 The Complete Angler 



Scholar, I have a rich neighbour that is always so 

 busy that he has no leisure to laugh; the whole 

 business of his life is to get money, and more 

 money, that he may still get more and more money ; 

 he is still drudging on, and says, that Solomon says 

 "The diligent hand maketh rich"; and it is true 

 indeed : but he considers not that it is not in the 

 power of riches to make a man happy ; for it was 

 wisely said, by a man of great observation, " That 

 there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this 

 side of them ". And yet God deliver us from pinch- 

 ing poverty ; and grant, that having a competency, 

 we may be content and thankful. Let not us re- 

 pine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally 

 dealt, if we see another abound with riches ; when, 

 as God knows, the cares that are the keys that keep 

 those riches hang often so heavily at the rich man's 

 girdle, that they clog him with weary days and 

 restless nights, even when others sleep quietly. We 

 see but the outside of the rich man's happiness : few 

 consider him to be like the silk-worm, that, when 

 she seems to play, is, at the very same time, spin- 

 ning her own bowels, and consuming herself; and 

 this many rich men do, loading themselves with 

 corroding cares, to keep what they have, probably, 

 unconscionably got. Let us, therefore, be thankful 

 for health and a competence ; and above all, for a 

 quiet conscience. 



Let me tell you, Scholar, that Diogenes walked 

 on a day, with his friend, to see a country fair; 

 where he saw ribbons, and looking-glasses, and nut- 

 crackers, and fiddles, and hobby-horses, and many 

 other gimcracks ; and, having observed them, and 

 all the other finnimbruns that make a complete 

 country-fair, he said to his friend, "Lord, how 

 many things are there in this world of which 

 Diogenes hath no need ! " And truly it is so, of 



