Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/301

Rh to discourse unto him, from what cause all this doth proceed. And verily a man may look, that of those who are thirsty ordinarily, he that hath not drunk will be delivered of his thirst so soon as he meeteth with drink; but in case such an one as evermore drinketh and poureth in still, never giving over, yet nevertheless continueth dry and thirsty, we judge him to have no need of repletion, but rather of purging and evacuation; him (I say) we appoint for to vomit, as being not troubled and distempered upon any want, but with some extraordinary heat or unkind acrimonies of humours that be within him; even so it is with those that seek to get and gather goods: he that is bare and poor indeed, will haply give over seeking so soon as he hath got him an house to dwell in, or found some treasure, or met with a good friend to help him to a sum of money to make clear with the usurer, and to be crossed out of his book: but he that hath already more than enough and sufficient, and yet craveth more, surely it is neither gold nor silver that will cure him, neither horses, nor sheep, nor yet beeves will serve his turn; need had he of purgation and evacuation, for poverty is not his disease, but covetousness and an unsatiable desire of riches, proceeding from false judgment and a corrupt opinion that he hath, which if a man do not rid away out of his mind, as a winding gulf or whirlpool that is cross and overthwart in their way, they will never cease to hunt after superfluities, and seem to stand in need thereof, (that is to say) to covet those things which they know not what to do with. When a physician cometh into the chamber of a patient, whom he findeth lying along in his bed groaning, and refusing all food, he taketh him by the hand, feeleth his pulse, asketh him certain questions, and finding that he hath no ague; This is a disease (quoth he) of the mind, and so goeth his way; even so, when we see a worldly-minded man altogether set upon his gets and gains, pining away, and even consumed with the greedy worm of gathering good, weeping, whining, and sighing at expenses, and when any money is to go out of his purse, sticking at no pain and trouble, sparing for no indignity, no unhonest and indirect means whatsoever, nor caring which way he goes to work, whether it be by hook or crook, so that he may gain and profit thereby; having choice of houses and tenements, lands lying in every country, droves, herds, and flocks of cattle, a number of slaves, wardrobes of apparel and clothes of all sorts: what shall we say that this man is sick of, unless it be the poverty of the soul?

As for want of money and goods, one friend (as Menander