cause he looks big, can bustle in the
world, hath a fair outside, can temporise, collogue, insinuate, or hath
good store of friends and money, whereas a more discreet, modest, and
better-deserving man shall lie hid or have a repulse. 'Twas so of old, and
ever will be, and which Tiresias advised Ulysses in the [3961]
poet,--_Accipe qua ratione queas ditescere_, &c., is still in use; lie,
flatter, and dissemble: if not, as he concludes,--_Ergo pauper eris_, then
go like a beggar as thou art. Erasmus, Melancthon, Lipsius, Budaeus,
Cardan, lived and died poor. Gesner was a silly old man, _baculo innixus_,
amongst all those huffing cardinals, swelling bishops that flourished in
his time, and rode on foot-clothes. It is not honesty, learning, worth,
wisdom, that prefers men, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to
the strong," but as the wise man said, [3962]Chance, and sometimes a
ridiculous chance. [3963]_Casus plerumque ridiculus multos elevavit._ 'Tis
fortune's doings, as they say, which made Brutus now dying exclaim, _O
misera virtus, ergo nihil quam verba eras, atqui ego te tanquam rem
exercebam, sed tu serviebas fortunae._ [3964]Believe it hereafter, O my
friends! virtue serves fortune. Yet be not discouraged (O my well deserving
spirits) with this which I have said, it may be otherwise, though seldom I
confess, yet sometimes it is. But to your farther content, I'll tell you a
[3965]tale. In Maronia pia, or Maronia felix, I know not whether, nor how
long since, nor in what cathedral church, a fat prebend fell void. The
carcass scarce cold, many suitors were up in an instant. The first had rich
friends, a good purse, and he was resolved to outbid any man before he
would lose it, every man supposed he should carry it. The second was my
lord Bishop's chaplain (in whose gift it was), and he thought it his due to
have it. The third was nobly born, and he meant to get it by his great
parents, patrons, and allies. The fourth stood upon his worth, he had newly
found out strange mysteries in chemistry, and other rare inventions, which
he would detect to the public good. The fifth was a painful preacher, and
he was commended by the whole parish where he dwelt, he had all their hands
to his certificate. The sixth was the prebendary's son lately deceased, his
father died in debt (for it, as they say), left a wife and many poor
children. The seventh stood upon fair promises, which to him and his noble
friends had been formerl