escribes it) "is a [1825]gallimaufry of
ambition, lust, fraud, imposture, dissimulation, detraction, envy, pride;
[1826]the court, a common conventicle of flatterers, time-servers,
politicians," &c.; or as [1827] Anthony Perez will, "the suburbs of hell
itself." If you will see such discontented persons, there you shall likely
find them. [1828]And which he observed of the markets of old Rome,

"Qui perjurum convenire vult hominem, mitto in Comitium;
Qui mendacem et gloriosum, apud Cluasinae sacrum;
Dites, damnosos maritos, sub basilica quaerito," &c.

Perjured knaves, knights of the post, liars, crackers, bad husbands, &c.
keep their several stations; they do still, and always did in every
commonwealth.

SUBSECT. XII.--[Greek: philarguria], _Covetousness, a Cause_.

Plutarch, in his [1829]book whether the diseases of the body be more
grievous than those of the soul, is of opinion, "if you will examine all
the causes of our miseries in this life, you shall find them most part to
have had their beginning from stubborn anger, that furious desire of
contention, or some unjust or immoderate affection, as covetousness," &c.
From whence "are wars and contentions amongst you?" [1830]St. James asks: I
will add usury, fraud, rapine, simony, oppression, lying, swearing, bearing
false witness, &c. are they not from this fountain of covetousness, that
greediness in getting, tenacity in keeping, sordidity in spending; that
they are so wicked, [1831]"unjust against God, their neighbour,
themselves;" all comes hence. "The desire of money is the root of all evil,
and they that lust after it, pierce themselves through with many sorrows,"
1 Tim. vi. 10. Hippocrates therefore in his Epistle to Crateva, an
herbalist, gives him this good counsel, that if it were possible, [1832]
"amongst other herbs, he should cut up that weed of covetousness by the
roots, that there be no remainder left, and then know this for a certainty,
that together with their bodies, thou mayst quickly cure all the diseases
of their minds." For it is indeed the pattern, image, epitome of all
melancholy, the fountain of many miseries, much discontented care and woe;
this "inordinate, or immoderate desire of gain, to get or keep money," as
[1833]Bonaventure defines it: or, as Austin describes it, a madness of the
soul, Gregory a torture; Chrysostom, an insatiable drunkenness; Cyprian,
blindness, _speciosum supplicium_, a plague subverting kingd