226 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



and cheerful like us ; who, with the expence of a little money, 

 have eat and drank, and laught, and angled, and sung, and 

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

 sung, and laught, 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 

 lie 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 them :" and yet God deliver us from pinching 

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

 content, and thankful. Let us not 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 

 lierself ; and this many rich men do, loading themselves with 

 corroding cares, to keep what they have, probably, uncon- 

 scionably 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 

 arid looking-glasses and nut-crackers and fiddles and hobby - 

 liorses 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, or might be so, with very many who vex and toil 

 themselves to get what they have no need of. Can any man 

 charge God that he hath not given him enough to make his 

 life happy ? No, doubtless ; for nature is content with a little. 

 And yet you shall hardly meet with a man that complains not 

 of some want ; though he, indeed, wants nothing but his will ; 

 it may be, nothing but his will of his poor neighbour, for not 

 worshipping or not flattering him : and thus when we might 



