VII.
If of their pleasures and desires no end be found;
God to their cares and fears will set no bound.
What would content you? Who can tell?
Ye fear so much to lose what you have got
As if ye liked it well.
Ye strive for more, as if ye liked it not.
Go, level hills, and fill up seas,
Spare nought that may your wanton fancy please;
But trust me, when you have done all this,
Much will be missing still, and much will be amiss.
OF AVARICE.
There are two sorts of avarice; the one is but of a bastard kind;
and that is, the rapacious appetite of gain, not for its own sake,
but for the pleasure of refunding it immediately through all the
channels of pride and luxury. The other is the true kind, and
properly so called; which is a restless and unsatiable desire of
riches, not for any further end of use, but only to hoard, and
preserve, and perpetually increase them. The covetous man of the
first kind is like a greedy ostrich, which devours any metal, but it
is with an intent to feed upon it, and in effect it makes a shift to
digest and excern it. The second is like the foolish chough, which
loves to steal money only to hide it.
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