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to the third generation, according to the poet,
It seldom is the grandchild's lot,
To be the heir of goods not justly got.
Others come to want and misery by spending their fair estates in ways of vicious living, as on drink and women; for Bachus and Venus are inseparable companions; and he that is familiar with the one, is never a stranger to the other.
In some way, manner, and end,
Both wine and women do offend.
Some again live in perpetual want, being naturally wholly given to idleness. These are the drones of a common-wealth, who deserve not to live. "He that laboureth not, should not eat.- Labour night and day, rather than be burthensome," saith the Apostle Paul: both country and city swarm with this kind of people; "The diligent hand," saith Solomon, "shall make rich; but the sluggard shall have a scarcity of bread."
I remember when I was in the Low Countries, there were three soldiers, a Dutchman, a Scot, and an Englishman, who for their misdemeanors, were condemned to be hanged; yet their lives were begged by three several men, one a brick-layer, that he might help him to make bricks, and carry them to the walls; the other was a brewer of Delft, who begged his man to fetch water, and do other work in the brew-house; and the third by a gardener, to help him to work in and dress a hop garden. The first two accepted their offers thankfully; but the last, the Englishman, told his master in plain terms, his friends had never brought him up to gather hops; and therefore desired therefore to be hanged.
