subject to contempt and scorn in the world, let him be never so well accomplished with the perfections of body or mind: so true is that which Juvenal tells us,

Nil hubit infælix' paupertas durius in se
Quam quod ridiculos Homines facit.-

Nothing makes Poverty more grievous then
That it contemptible doth render Men.

And though it be the hardest thing to bear in poverty, yet it is always a constant concomitant of it, that it exposes men to scorn and ridicule and that by those, who are far more worthy of contempt themselves, both in regard of their ignorance, and debauched lives, or in significant conversations.

I confess, if we look backward into the better and wiser ages of the world, Virtue, though clothed in rags, was more esteemed than the trappings of the golden Ass: 'tis in these last and worst of days, that Vice has got such an ascendant in the world; as to make men think all that are poor, are miserable: for in the primitive times, Poverty was the badge of Religion and Piety; and well it might, for not many great, nor many noble were called: and the study of wisdom, and the contempt of the world, was in esteem amongst the wisest Philosophers in the earliest ages. But, as Ovid has it,

Tempora mutantur, & nos mutamur in illis
The Times are chang'd, and even we,
Seem changed with the Times to be!

So that in these times, considering the misery of wanting money is so great, we may say with the wise man, My son, it is better to die than to be poor: which saying, was perhaps the occasion of an old miser's mistake, who bid his son observe what Solomon said, which was, Always to keep a penny in his pocket. But his Son answering again, He did not remember that Solomon said any such thing: the miser replied, Then Solomon was not so wise as he took him for.

Indeed money is now become the worldly man's god; and is the card which the devil turns up trump, to win the set withal; for it gives birth, breeding, beauty, honour and credit; and makes the possessors think themselves wise, though their very thinking so, declares them fools: but because money answers all things, and is in such vogue with the world, therefore so many are willing to purchase it, though with the loss of soul and body.

But the want of money does not only cause men to be contemned and ridiculed, but it also puts men upon taking wicked and unlawful courses to obtain it: which made one say,

Omala Paupertas, Vitii Scelerisque Ministra!

O wretched Poverty! A Bawd thou'rt made
To ev'ry evil Act, and wicked Trade!

For it resteth and maketh crooked the best natures; which are forced by their neces

sities to do those things which they blush to think of, while they are doing them: such is borrowing, and not being able to pay; to speak untruths, to cover and disguise their poverty: to deceive, and sometimes to cheat their nearest relations. And all because when they are in want, they are scorned, despised, and perhaps disowned by them.

Nay, if it be a friend upon which a man has laid the greatest obligations; yet if he comes to be in want, and come to see those he has obliged before, if they cannot avoid bidding him dine with them; yet he shall be placed at the lower end of the table, and carved unto the worst of the meat: and though they are drinking frequently one to another, yet he shall be fain to whisper to one of the servants for his drink, and endure all the jeers that shall be put upon him, by those that are courted at the upper end of the table; no one all dinner-time shewing him any countenance, but looking upon him as the nuisance of the company. These are things so irksome, and hard to be born by a generous and noble spirit, that did not their want enforce them to accept of a dinner, they could with more. satisfaction dine with my Lord Mayor's. hounds in Bunhill-Fields.

Besides, whatever discourse is offered at the table, yet the necessitous man, (though perhaps he can speak more to the

purpose than all that are there must not put in a word, but give them leave to engross all the talk; and must hear them tell the most palpable lies, and speak the absurdest nonsense that may be, and yet must be silent, and sit like a person that neither knew nor understood any thing.

Now if all these miseries arising from the want of money were but well considered, it would certainly make men willing to eat their bread at home, and not be beholding to another for their meat: for, Est aliena vivere quadra, miserrimum. It is most miserable to live on the trencher of another man.

But before I leave this subject, of shewing the misery of wanting money, it is necessary I should say something of the misery of borrowing money, or running in debt, which is a consequent of wanting money; for he that does not want, has no occasion to borrow: and is, in that respect happy; for being out of debt, he is out of danger; and therefore needs not make use of the Clanculars, and find out all the byways and private turnings, on purpose to avoid his creditors; but can walk in the open streets without fear, and whet his knife even at the Counter Gates.

But on the contrary, he that borrows money, has made him such a slave to his creditors, that he dares hardly say his soul is his own; and is afraid that every one he

t

meets is a Serjeant, or a Bailiff, that intends to captivate his outward tabernacle : like the man that in the night-time, having his coat catched by a nail, and so stopped, he presently cried out, At whose suit? As supposing it had been a Serjeant that had arrested him. The melancholy air of his face is sufficient to tell his fears; his very sleep is disturbed with fearful dreams, and the very thoughts of a prison are worse than death to him. He is afraid to see his Down friends, lest they should be metamorphosed into Duns; and he would at any time go a mile about, to avoid meeting with a creditor, whom he looks upon to be the ill-naturedest man in the world, for having once done him a kindness, he is ever after twitting him in the teeth with it. In short, the man that's in debt, has his mind so loaded with fetters, that at best, he looks upon himself but as a prisoner at large; and is so much confined in his own house, that though he hears one knock, he darest not go to the door, for fear of meeting with a Serjeant to arrest him, or with a creditor, to ask when he shall be paid; and, because through poverty and want, he has but little flesh on his back, threatning to have his bones; in the mean time hindering him from getting that money with which he should be paid.

But besides all this, there are other miseries with which the poor debtor is al