THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 211 



that none can bear : and therefore let us praise Him for 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 expense 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 it is not in the power of riches to make a 

 man happy : for it was wisely said, by a man of great observa- 

 tion, " 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 con- 

 suming herself ; * and this many rich men do, loading themselves 

 with corroding cares, to keep what they have, probably, un- 

 conscionably got. Let us, therefore, be thankful for health and 

 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, 

 '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 ; 



* This is a very inaccurate comparison : the silk- worm does not consume 

 herself by spinning her o\vn bowels, but, out of a reservoir of silk gum on 

 p-ach side of the throat, spins a warm covering for protection during- the 

 torpidity preceding- a change of state. J, R, 



