272 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



either, according to its possessor : therefore it is to 

 incur neither disgrace nor honour, neither be condemned 

 to Hades, nor raised up to Heaven, but to wander 

 from place to place. It shall be found by no one who 

 has not first repented of his good mind and healthy 

 brain ; he must give up, according to Momus, all 

 thought of prudence, " not trusting in Heaven, regard- 

 ing not justice or injustice, honour or shame, calm or 

 storm, but committing all to chance. As a general 

 rule Riches are to go to the most insensate, the most 

 foolish, careless, silly to beware of the wise as of fire. 

 Poverty, on the other hand (in inferior or corporeal 

 goods), may be conjoined with riches in goods of the 

 mind, as riches in inferior goods may never be, for 

 no one that is wise or wishes to gain knowledge 

 can ever achieve great things by their means. To 

 philosophy Riches are an impediment, while Poverty 

 offers it a safe and easy road. He will be great who in 

 poverty is rich because he is content ; and he is a slave 

 who in riches is poor because he has not enough. Not 

 he that has little but he that desires much is really 

 poor. The friends of Poverty are open, the enemies of 

 Riches are secret ; the poor man by repressing desire 

 may rival Jove in happiness ; the rich, ever spreading 

 more and more widely the nets of cupidity, is plunged 



Avarice, more and more into depths of misery. Avarice is the 

 dark side, the shadow, of both Riches and Poverty, 

 ever fleeing Poverty and pursuing Riches, but ever 

 eluded by the latter, and ever caught by the former ; 

 far from Poverty in reality, she is ever close by it in 

 imagination ; it is this darkness or shadow that make 

 Poverty and Riches alike to be evil. One may be 

 poor in virtue of affect (feeling, emotion) as well as 



Fortune. i n virtue of effect (actual, material want). Fortune 



