hat sacrifice he may offer to his golden god,
_per fas et nefas_, he cares not how, his trouble is endless,
[1852]_crescunt divitiae, tamen curtae nescio quid semper abest rei_: his
wealth increaseth, and the more he hath, the more [1853]he wants: like
Pharaoh's lean kine, which devoured the fat, and were not satisfied.
[1854]Austin therefore defines covetousness, _quarumlibet rerum inhonestam
et insatiabilem cupiditatem_ a dishonest and insatiable desire of gain; and
in one of his epistles compares it to hell; [1855]"which devours all, and
yet never hath enough, a bottomless pit," an endless misery; _in quem
scopulum avaritiae cadaverosi senes utplurimum impingunt_, and that which
is their greatest corrosive, they are in continual suspicion, fear, and
distrust, He thinks his own wife and children are so many thieves, and go
about to cozen him, his servants are all false:

"Rem suam periisse, seque eradicarier,
Et divum atque hominum clamat continuo fidem,
De suo tigillo si qua exit foras."

"If his doors creek, then out he cries anon,
His goods are gone, and he is quite undone."

_Timidus Plutus_, an old proverb, As fearful as Plutus: so doth
Aristophanes and Lucian bring him in fearful still, pale, anxious,
suspicious, and trusting no man, [1856]"They are afraid of tempests for
their corn; they are afraid of their friends lest they should ask something
of them, beg or borrow; they are afraid of their enemies lest they hurt
them, thieves lest they rob them; they are afraid of war and afraid of
peace, afraid of rich and afraid of poor; afraid of all." Last of all, they
are afraid of want, that they shall die beggars, which makes them lay up
still, and dare not use that they have: what if a dear year come, or
dearth, or some loss? and were it not that they are both to [1857]lay out
money on a rope, they would be hanged forthwith, and sometimes die to save
charges, and make away themselves, if their corn and cattle miscarry;
though they have abundance left, as [1858]Agellius notes. [1859]Valerius
makes mention of one that in a famine sold a mouse for 200 pence, and
famished himself: such are their cares, [1860]griefs and perpetual fears.
These symptoms are elegantly expressed by Theophrastus in his character of
a covetous man; [1861]"lying in bed, he asked his wife whether she shut the
trunks and chests fast, the cap-case be sealed, and whether the hall door
be bolted; and though sh