594 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



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 silkworm, 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, 'Lord, how many things 

 are there in this world of which Diogenes hath no reed!' 

 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 neighbor, for not worshipping, or not flattering him: 

 and thus, when we might be happy and quiet, we create 

 trouble to ourselves. I have heard of a man that was angry 



