claps on
some tawdry ornament, and what he adds to the fineness of his vestment
he detracts from the fineness of his linen. Without descending into more
minute particulars, I believe I may assert it as an axiom of indubitable
truth, that whoever shows you he is either in himself or his equipage
as gaudy as he can, convinces you he is more so than he can afford. Now,
whenever a man's expense exceeds his income, he is indifferent in the
degree; we had therefore nothing more to do with such than to flatter
them with their wealth and splendor, and were always certain of success.

"There is, indeed, one kind of rich man who is commonly more liberal,
namely, where riches surprise him, as it were, in the midst of poverty
and distress, the consequence of which is, I own, sometimes excessive
avarice, but oftener extreme prodigality. I remember one of these who,
having received a pretty large sum of money, gave me, when I begged
an obolus, a whole talent; on which his friend having reproved him, he
answered, with an oath, 'Why not? Have I not fifty left?'

"The life of a beggar, if men estimated things by their real essence,
and not by their outward false appearance, would be, perhaps, a more
desirable situation than any of those which ambition persuades us, with
such difficulty, danger, and often villainy, to aspire to. The wants of
a beggar are commonly as chimerical as the abundance of a nobleman;
for besides vanity, which a judicious beggar will always apply to with
wonderful efficacy, there are in reality very few natures so hardened as
not to compassionate poverty and distress, when the predominancy of some
other passion doth not prevent them.

"There is one happiness which attends money got with ease, namely, that
it is never hoarded; otherwise, as we have frequent opportunities of
growing rich, that canker care might prey upon our quiet, as it doth on
others; but our money stock we spend as fast as we acquire it; usually
at least, for I speak not without exception; thus it gives us mirth
only, and no trouble. Indeed, the luxury of our lives might introduce
diseases, did not our daily exercise prevent them. This gives us an
appetite and relish for our dainties, and at the same time an antidote
against the evil effects which sloth, united with luxury, induces on the
habit of a human body. Our women we enjoy with ecstasies at least equal
to what the greatest men feel in their embraces. I can, I am assured,
say of myself, t