11
The times are changed, and even we
Seem changed with times to be.
So that in those 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, "Always keep a penny in your pocket." But his son answered again, He did not remember that Solomon said any such thing. The miser replied, "Then Solomon was not so wise as I took him to be.
Indeed, money's now become the worldly man's god, and the card which the devil turns up trumph to win the game; 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 many are so willing to purchase it though with the loss of soul and body.
But the want of money does not only cause men to be condemned and ridiculed, but it also puts men upon taking wicked and unlawful courses to obtain it; which made one to say,
O wretched poverty! a tool thou’rt made,
To every evil act and wicked trade.
For it wresteth and maketh crooked the best natures; which are forced by their necessities, to do those things which they blush to think of while they are doing them; such as 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 and despised, and perhaps disowned by them,
