There are as many ways to be rich;
and, which is better, there is no possibility to be poor, without
such negligence as can neither have excuse nor pity; for a little
ground will, without question, feed a little family, and the
superfluities of life (which are now in some cases by custom made
almost necessary) must be supplied out of the superabundance of art
and industry, or contemned by as great a degree of philosophy. As
for the necessity of this art, it is evident enough, since this can
live without all others, and no one other without this. This is
like speech, without which the society of men cannot be preserved;
the others like figures and tropes of speech which serve only to
adorn it. Many nations have lived, and some do still, without any
art but this; not so elegantly, I confess, but still they have; and
almost all the other arts which are here practised are beholding to
them for most of their materials. The innocence of this life is in
the next thing for which I commend it, and if husbandmen preserve
not that, they are much to blame, for no men are so free from the
temptations of iniquity. They live by what they can get by industry
from the earth, and others by what they can catch by craft from men.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73