<h3><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64" />V.</h3>
<p>'But since my reasonings begin to work a soothing effect within thy
mind, methinks I may resort to remedies somewhat stronger. Come,
suppose, now, the gifts of Fortune were not fleeting and transitory,
what is there in them capable of ever becoming truly thine, or which
does not lose value when looked at steadily and fairly weighed in the
balance? Are riches, I pray thee, precious either through thy nature or
in their own? What are they but mere gold and heaps of money? Yet these
fine things show their quality better in the spending than in the
hoarding; for I suppose 'tis plain that greed Alva's makes men hateful,
while liberality brings fame. But that which is transferred to another
cannot remain in one's own possession; and if that be so, then money is
only precious when it is given away, and, by <SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65" />being transferred to
others, ceases to be one's own. Again, if all the money in the world
were heaped up in one man's possession, all others would be made poor.
Sound fills the ears of many at the same time without being broken into
parts, but your riches cannot pass to many without being lessened in the
process. And when this happens, they must needs impoverish those whom
they leave. How poor and cramped a thing, then, is riches, which more
than one cannot possess as an unbroken whole, which falls not to any one
man's lot without the impoverishment of everyone else! Or is it the
glitter of gems that allures the eye? Yet, how rarely excellent soever
may be their splendour, remember the flashing light is in the jewels,
not in the man. Indeed, I greatly marvel at men's admiration of them;
for what can rightly seem beautiful to a being endowed with life and
reason, if it lack the movement and structure of life? And although such
things do in the end take on them more beauty from their Maker's care
and their own brilliancy, still they in no wise merit your admiration
<SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66" />since their excellence is set at a lower grade than your own.</p>
<p>'Does the beauty of the fields delight you? Surely, yes; it is a
beautiful part of a right beautiful whole. Fitly indeed do we at times
enjoy the serene calm of the sea, admire the sky, the stars, the moon,
the sun. Yet is any of these thy concern? Dost thou venture to boast
thyself of the beauty of any one of them? Art <em>thou</em> decked with
spring's flowers? is it <em>thy</em> fertility that swelleth in the fruits of
autumn? Why art thou moved with empty transports? why embracest thou an
alien excellence as thine own? Never will fortune make thine that which
the nature of things has excluded from thy ownership. Doubtless the
fruits of the earth are given for the sustenance of living creatures.
But if thou art content to supply thy wants so far as suffices nature,
there is no need to resort to fortune's bounty. Nature is content with
few things, and with a very little of these. If thou art minded to force
superfluities upon her when she is satisfied, that which thou addest
will prove either unpleasant <SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67" />or harmful. But, now, thou thinkest it
fine to shine in raiment of divers colours; yet—if, indeed, there is
any pleasure in the sight of such things—it is the texture or the
artist's skill which I shall admire.</p>
<p>'Or perhaps it is a long train of servants that makes thee happy? Why,
if they behave viciously, they are a ruinous burden to thy house, and
exceeding dangerous to their own master; while if they are honest, how
canst thou count other men's virtue in the sum of thy possessions? From
all which 'tis plainly proved that not one of these things which thou
reckonest in the number of thy possessions is really thine. And if there
is in them no beauty to be desired, why shouldst thou either grieve for
their loss or find joy in their continued possession? While if they are
beautiful in their own nature, what is that to thee? They would have
been not less pleasing in themselves, though never included among thy
possessions. For they derive not their preciousness from being counted
in thy riches, but rather thou hast chosen to count them <SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68" />in thy riches
because they seemed to thee precious.</p>
<p>'Then, what seek ye by all this noisy outcry about fortune? To chase
away poverty, I ween, by means of abundance. And yet ye find the result
just contrary. Why, this varied array of precious furniture needs more
accessories for its protection; it is a true saying that they want most
who possess most, and, conversely, they want very little who measure
their abundance by nature's requirements, not by the superfluity of vain
display. Have ye no good of your own implanted within you, that ye seek
your good in things external and separate? Is the nature of things so
reversed that a creature divine by right of reason can in no other way
be splendid in his own eyes save by the possession of lifeless chattels?
Yet, while other things are content with their own, ye who in your
intellect are God-like seek from the lowest of things adornment for a
nature of supreme excellence, and perceive not how great a wrong ye do
your Maker. His will was that mankind should excel all things on earth.
Ye thrust down your <SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69" />worth beneath the lowest of things. For if that in
which each thing finds its good is plainly more precious than that whose
good it is, by your own estimation ye put yourselves below the vilest of
things, when ye deem these vile things to be your good: nor does this
fall out undeservedly. Indeed, man is so constituted that he then only
excels other things when he knows himself; but he is brought lower than
the beasts if he lose this self-knowledge. For that other creatures
should be ignorant of themselves is natural; in man it shows as a
defect. How extravagant, then, is this error of yours, in thinking that
anything can be embellished by adornments not its own. It cannot be. For
if such accessories add any lustre, it is the accessories that get the
praise, while that which they veil and cover remains in its pristine
ugliness. And again I say, That is no <em>good</em>, which injures its
possessor. Is this untrue? No, quite true, thou sayest. And yet riches
have often hurt those that possessed them, since the worst of men, who
are all the more covetous by reason of their wickedness, think none but
them<SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70" />selves worthy to possess all the gold and gems the world contains.
So thou, who now dreadest pike and sword, mightest have trolled a carol
"in the robber's face," hadst thou entered the road of life with empty
pockets. Oh, wondrous blessedness of perishable wealth, whose
acquisition robs thee of security!'</p>
<h3>SONG V.<br/>The Former Age.</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span>Too blest the former age, their life<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Who in the fields contented led,<br/></span>
<span>And still, by luxury unspoiled,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">On frugal acorns sparely fed.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span>No skill was theirs the luscious grape<br/></span>
<span class="i2">With honey's sweetness to confuse;<br/></span>
<span>Nor China's soft and sheeny silks<br/></span>
<span class="i2">T' empurple with brave Tyrian hues.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span>The grass their wholesome couch, their drink<br/></span>
<span class="i2">The stream, their roof the pine's tall shade;<br/></span>
<span>Not theirs to cleave the deep, nor seek<br/></span>
<span class="i2">In strange far lands the spoils of trade.<br/></span><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71" /></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span>The trump of war was heard not yet,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Nor soiled the fields by bloodshed's stain;<br/></span>
<span>For why should war's fierce madness arm<br/></span>
<span class="i2">When strife brought wound, but brought not gain?<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span>Ah! would our hearts might still return<br/></span>
<span class="i2">To following in those ancient ways.<br/></span>
<span>Alas! the greed of getting glows<br/></span>
<span class="i2">More fierce than Etna's fiery blaze.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span>Woe, woe for him, whoe'er it was,<br/></span>
<span class="i2">Who first gold's hidden store revealed,<br/></span>
<span>And—perilous treasure-trove—dug out<br/></span>
<span class="i2">The gems that fain would be concealed!<br/></span></div>
</div>
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