hat mistake the mark.

ANTHONY: Those that make toward the mark and light far too short,
when they are shot, shall I take up for you.

To prove that perpetual wealth should be no evil token, you say
first that for princes and prelates, and every man for others, we
pray all for perpetual prosperity, and that in the common prayers
of the church, too.

Then say you secondly, that if prosperity were so perilous and
tribulation so profitable, every man ought to pray God to send
others sorrow.

Thirdly, you furnish your objections with examples of Solomon, Job,
and Abraham.

And fourthly, in the end of all, you prove by experience of our own
time daily before our face, that some wealthy folk are good and
some needy ones very wicked. That last bolt, since I say the same
myself, I think you will be content to take up, it lieth so far
wide.

VINCENT: That will I, with a good will, uncle.

ANTHONY: Well, do so, then, cousin, and we shall aim for the rest.

First must you, cousin, be sure that you look well to the mark, and
that you cannot do so unless you know what tribulation is. For
since that is one of the things that we principally speak of,
unless you consider well what it is, you may miss the mark again.

I suppose now that you will agree that tribulation is every such
thing as troubleth and grieveth a man either in body or mind, and
is as it were the prick of a thorn, a bramble, or a briar thrust
into his flesh or into his mind. And surely, cousin, the prick that
very sore pricketh the mind surpasseth in pain the grief that
paineth the body, almost as far as doth a thorn sticking in the
heart surpass and exceed in pain the thorn that is thrust in the
heel.

Now cousin, if tribulation be this that I call it, then shall you
soon consider this: There are more kinds of tribulation
peradventure than you thought on before. And thereupon it followeth
also, since every kind of tribulation is an interruption of wealth,
that prosperity (which is but another name for wealth) may be
discontinued by more ways than you would before have thought. Then
say I thus unto you, cousin: Since tribulation is not only such
pangs as pain the body, but every trouble also that grieveth the
mind, many good men have many tribulations that every man marketh
not, and consequently their wealth is interrupted when other men
are not aware. For think you, cousin, that the temptations of the
devil, the world, and the flesh, soliciting the m