Page:Fumifugium - John Evelyn (1661).djvu/20

 did, and accursed Avarice of some few Particular Persons, should be suffered to prejudice the health and felicity of so many: That any Profit (besides what is of absolute necessity) should render men regardlesse of what chiefly imports them, when it may be purchased upon so easie conditions, and with so great advantages: For it is not happiness to possesse Gold, but to enjoy the Effects of it, and to know how to live cheerfully and in health, Non est vivere, sed valere vita. That men whose very Being is Aer, should not breath it freely when they may; but (as that Tyrant us'd his Vassals) condemn themselves to this misery & Fumo præfocari, is strange stupidity: yet thus we see them walk and converse in London, pursu'd and haunted by that infernal Smoake, and the funest accidents which accompany it whereso: ever they retire.

That this Glorious and Antient City, which from Wood might be rendred Brick, and (like another Rome) from Brick made Stone and Marble; which commands the Proud Ocean to the Indies, and reaches to the farthest Antipodes'', should wrap her stately head in Clowds of Smoake and Sulphur, so full of Stink and Darknesse, I deplore with just Indignation. That the Buildings should be compos'd of such a Congestion of mishapen and extravagant Houses; That the'' Streets