inter optimos optimus, inter temperantes temperantissimus_, the most
temperate and best. We have no aristocracies but in contemplation, all
oligarchies, wherein a few rich men domineer, do what they list, and are
privileged by their greatness. [2232]They may freely trespass, and do as
they please, no man dare accuse them, no not so much as mutter against
them, there is no notice taken of it, they may securely do it, live after
their own laws, and for their money get pardons, indulgences, redeem their
souls from purgatory and hell itself,--_clausum possidet arca Jovem_. Let
them be epicures, or atheists, libertines, Machiavellians, (as they often
are) [2233]_Et quamvis perjuris erit, sine gente, cruentus_, they may go
to heaven through the eye of a needle, if they will themselves, they may be
canonised for saints, they shall be [2234]honourably interred in Mausolean
tombs, commended by poets, registered in histories, have temples and
statues erected to their names,--_e manibus illis--nascentur violae_.--If
he be bountiful in his life, and liberal at his death, he shall have one to
swear, as he did by Claudius the Emperor in Tacitus, he saw his soul go to
heaven, and be miserably lamented at his funeral. _Ambubalarum collegia,
&c. Trimalcionis topanta_ in Petronius _recta in caelum abiit_, went right
to heaven: a, base quean, [2235]"thou wouldst have scorned once in thy
misery to have a penny from her;" and why? _modio nummos metiit_, she
measured her money by the bushel. These prerogatives do not usually belong
to rich men, but to such as are most part seeming rich, let him have but a
good [2236]outside, he carries it, and shall be adored for a god, as
[2237]Cyrus was amongst the Persians, _ob splendidum apparatum_, for his
gay attires; now most men are esteemed according to their clothes. In our
gullish times, whom you peradventure in modesty would give place to, as
being deceived by his habit, and presuming him some great worshipful man,
believe it, if you shall examine his estate, he will likely be proved a
serving man of no great note, my lady's tailor, his lordship's barber, or
some such gull, a Fastidius Brisk, Sir Petronel Flash, a mere outside. Only
this respect is given him, that wheresoever he comes, he may call for what
he will, and take place by reason of his outward habit.

But on the contrary, if he be poor, Prov. xv. 15, "all his days are
miserable," he is under hatches, dejected, rejected and forsaken, poor