next to a Miracle. Nature contents it felf with a little Food, and lefs moistening the Clay. She takes more Pleasure in that which is plain, fimple or wholesome for the Body, than in all the full-flowing Bowls, magnificent Varieties, and nice Delicacies at voluptuous Feafts or vicious Banquets. Neceffity can be no juft Plea for any Excefs, either in Eating or Drinking against the Rules of Moderation, or good Health. 'Tis true, the Body requires Nourishment, but no Superfluities. What fatisfies Nature, upon the Craving, is fufficient. Neceffaries of Life, thank God! are very common. They grow almost under every Hedge in the Country, or Garden in the Town, abounding with Plenty. Corn is cheap; Herbs of the Field are cheaper, and Water is the cheapest of all, in the Comparifon. A good Stomach, by Virtue of Contentment, can make a Feaft of Bread and Water; with Fruits, Roots, or other natural Productions, upon an urgent Neceffity. Some Princes have been driven to greater Wants, Streights or Extre mities, both of Thirft and Hunger; and yet have regal'd themfelves with worfe Things a great deal than coftly Dishes, fumptuous Novelties, delicious Rarities, racy Wines, or even fair Water: without doing the leaft Prejudice to their Honour, and Damage to their Health, either by the Courfenefs of their Diet, or the Cheapnefs of their Drink. However, when there happens to be Plenty enough, in a Family, without Profufion; not to pinch the Body on the one Hand, nor to pamper it on the other, must needs be the healthfullest Way of Living, like rational Creatures, as well as hofpitable and liberal Entertainers of the Needy. Needy. Such as thefe wife, frugal, generous Houfe-Keepers, will always be the greateft Relievers of the poor Lazarus's of the World! But pleasing of Palates with Niceties and Kickshaws, either of a Foreign or Domestick Mode, is only poyfoning of Conftitutions, or furfeiting Nature! LET us therefore not repine; but make a right Ufe, Application and Advantage of our Poverty in all Cafes, according to the best Inftruction of the Antient Sages or Moral Philofo phers and then we fhall go near to remember our Mifery no more; or think it no great Unhappiness, in the Main, to be poor. Poverty well apply'd, carries along with it abundance of Benefits and Bleffings. It contains a World of Learning and Felicity. It is, as Diogenes faid, a great Help to Philofophy. It teaches us Frugality, Sobriety, and feveral other Virtues, both religious and moral. Infomuch that the Fear of falling into Poverty, or Want, is reckon'd by the Wife, a moft ridiculous and ground lefs Error in Judgment. 'Tis like Children's crying out before the Evil comes; before ever they are hurt. It commonly anticipates the Punishment, or helps on the Rod of Correction apace. How highly abfurd and unreasonable is it for the Poor to think themfelves lefs happy than the Rich; either less fortunate in Life, or lefs legitimate by Birth! Much more injurious is it to divine Providence, to believe them felves to be only the Baftards of ill Luck, or the By-Blows of blind Chance. They have the fame Title equal with the richeft Wordlings, or wealthieft Money Changers, to all the glorious Felicities of the Kingdom of Heaven. They often meet with fewer M Hindrances, Avocations or Interruptions, as well as lefs Difficulty and Disturbance upon Earth, in attaining to thofe blifsful Manfions Above. They are bleft with the fame fpecial Grace, if not often greater, by the Gift of Contentment; to advance their Contemplation of Celestial Things, and exalt their Meditation of Immortality (fooner or latter) into full Fruition. The Poor frequently have a better Portion of good Things than the Rich, in this fpiritualiz'd Senfe and unmercenary Acceptation. For these Tranfitory cannot be comparable to those permanent Treasures. are only the Chains and Racks and Torments of fome People's Souls. They are Self-Tormenters in Deed; who make Money their God, and are always punish'd by their own Idolatry! What Happiness can useless Wealth afford the covetous Mifer above the meaner fort of poor People; but Pride, Infolence and Oftentation, as Lactantius wifely obferves? Poverty will ever have the Preference of Covetoufnefs, and the Preheminence of Riches, among the virtuous Defpifers of this World. Riches BUT nothing can be more charmingly inftructive than the Defcriptions, which the wise Moralifts give us of the inexpreffible Advantages of Poverty. She is the Mistress of Manners, fays Ariftophanes. She is the Nurfe of Abftinence, fays Archefilaus. She is the Companion of Wisdom and Contentation, fays Euripides. Menander fays, the Poor are under the Protection of God. Better is a little with Joy, than a great deal of Pelf with Sorrow in the Poffeffion. 'Tis but making a Virtue of Neceflity; and any healthful induftrious Man may live well enough, to his Heart's Content. Poverty is the the School of Virtue, Knowledge and Diligence, in a Word. It defires no great Wealth, and therefore does not want it in Abundance. It gives to the Spirit, Alacrity; to the Wit, Acutenefs; and to the Understanding, Vigour. It adds an uncommon Livelinefs even to Life it felf; when it is rightly us'd in the Study of Philofophy, Temperance and Justice. In short, it inriches a Man with the Treasures of Religion, Wisdom and Tranquillity in the Injoyment of a good Confcience. It renders him fafe and fecure in all Dangers, Difficulties or Disasters; while the Rich, on the other Hand, are not in their own Power, but in Fortune's Clutches, or at the Difpofal of Chance: expos'd to all the fudden Accidents of Lofs and Labour-in-Vain. Bion the Wife formerly introduc'd Poverty, difputing the Cafe, and arguing the Difference ingeniously with a Disciple of Philofophy, to this Purport." Have I rob"bed thee of any Thing? Have I done thee any Injury or Injustice? Have I depriv'd thee of "Prudence, Justice or Fortitude? Have I taken 66 from thee any Neceffaries of Life? Are not "the Ways full of Herbs, Fruits, and Fountains "of Water? Haft thou not as many Beds as "the Earth can contain, and as many Coverlets or Mattreffes as there are Leaves; befides Hay " and Straw? Have not I provided the best Cook for thee; that is, Hunger? Have not I given thee a greater Pleasure in Drinking, "when thou art a thirsty? Fear not any Want, my Philofopher! Doft think a Man fhall die "for Hunger, because he has no Tarts at his Ta"ble; or of Thirst, because he has no delicate "Wine cool'd with Snow in his Power? Such "Things are only unneceffary Niceties. In fine, "how canst thou want a House or a Lodging "when there are so many goodly Churches and ftately Fabricks in our Cities and Suburbs? This ingenuous Moral Expoftulation feems to deserve our most serious Reflexion, and to be very worthy of an Answer in Favour of a wellstudy'd and cultivated Poverty. As for the glorious Examples of this Virtue, it would be tedious to recount them from Hiftory. It will be fufficient then here to mention the famous Teftimonies of Ariftides, the Juft; who left not Money enough behind him for his Burial, by his upright Dealing: of Zeno, the Patient; who after all his great Loffes became the greater Philofopher, by his Long-fuffering: of Lycurgus, the Liberal, who fpent his All for the Good of his Country, by his Generofity: of Diogenes, the Contented; who thought himself happier in his Tub, than Alexander on the Throne, by his Equanimity of Cleanthes, the Laborious; who daily turn'd a Milftone about to get his Living, and fupport his Studies of Learning, by his Industry: of Pythagoras, the Abftemious; who always liv'd upon a fpare Diet, of Fruits and Herbs, inftead of Bread, by his Temperance; and of Menedemus, the gable, who wrought hard every Day to tain his Lucubrations of Wisdom at Night, by his Labour: All of them thus thriving and flourishing upon their Poverty, with the greateft Applaufe, Contentation and Felicity. What need I name any more illuftrious Inftances of Self-Denial in the mightieft, and Magnanimity in the meanest Circumftances? All Difcontentment, Deficiency, or Indigence, confifts in the Defire only; or in a fanciful Apprehenfion, and difturb'd Imagination of future Contingencies, Out |