AND FOR THE COLOURING OF ROD AND LINE 



his preventing grace, and say, Every misery that I miss is a 

 new mercy: Nay, let me tell you, there be many that have 

 forty times our estates, that would give the greatest part of it 

 to be healthful and cheerful like us ; who, with the expence of 

 a little money, have eat and drank, and laughed, and angled, 

 and sung, and slept securely ; and rose next day, and cast away 

 care, and sung, and laughed, and angled again ; which are 

 blessings rich men cannot purchase with all their money. Let 

 me tell you, 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 'tis 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 them ' : and yet God deliver us from pinching 

 poverty ; and grant, that having a competency, we may be 

 content and thankful. Let not us repine, 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, 

 spinning 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 a 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, t Lord ! How many things are there 

 in this world, of which Diogenes hath no need ? ' And truly it 

 is so, or might be so, with very many who vex and toil them- 



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