Whatever an estate does beyond this afford,
Is not a rent paid to the Lord;
But is a tax illegal and unjust,
Exacted from it by the tyrant lust.
Much will always wanting be,
To him who much desires. Thrice happy he
To whom the wise indulgency of Heaven,
With sparing hand but just enough has given.
THE DANGERS OF AN HONEST MAN IN MUCH COMPANY.
If twenty thousand naked Americans were not able to resist the
assaults of but twenty well-armed Spaniards, I see little
possibility for one honest man to defend himself against twenty
thousand knaves, who are all furnished cap-a-pie with the defensive
arms of worldly prudence, and the offensive, too, of craft and
malice. He will find no less odds than this against him if he have
much to do in human affairs. The only advice, therefore, which I
can give him is, to be sure not to venture his person any longer in
the open campaign, to retreat and entrench himself, to stop up all
avenues, and draw up all bridges against so numerous an enemy. The
truth of it is, that a man in much business must either make himself
a knave, or else the world will make him a fool: and if the injury
went no farther than the being laughed at, a wise man would content
himself with the revenge of retaliation: but the case is much
worse, for these civil cannibals too, as well as the wild ones, not
only dance about such a taken stranger, but at last devour him.
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