( 21 ) 
“The Aster greets us as we pass, 
With her faint smile.” 
—Sarah H. Whitman. 
Auricula. 
A species of Peziza (P. auricula), a membranaceous fungus, called 
also auricula Judae , or Jew’s-Ear. 
Avarice. 
“Why lose we life in anxious cares 
To lay in hoards for future years ? 
Can these, when tortured by disease, 
Cheer our sick heart or purchase ease ? 
Can these prolong* one gasp of breath, 
Or calm the troubled hour of death ?” 
— Gay. 
TTVARICE, or covetousness, is an inordinate desire for riches; and 
therefore, not only he that steals from others, but he that passion¬ 
ately covets what is another’s, or is too solicitous in keeping what is his 
own, is properly accounted covetous. 
Covetousness shows a vile heart.—And what a. folly it is, also, to be 
continually desiring those things which, even when all combined, can 
never satisfy man’s longings. On the contrary; they do but provoke and 
increase your desire, as we say of a dropsical man, that the more he drinks, 
the thirstier he becomes; because, let your possessions be ever so large, 
you will be always coveting something you have not, and still be hankering 
after more. So that, whilst your heart is unhappily running after the 
things of this world, it tires itself without ever being content ; it drinks, 
and yet cannot quench its thirst, because it takes no notice of what it has, 
