ell him: But we have heard thee say far otherwise,

When the account's cast up, the gain's but poor
Which by a lying tongue augments the store.

And as to what he saith of riches, to wit:--

Wealth, where it minds to go, meets with no stay;
For where it finds not, it can make a way;
Many fair offers doth the poor let go,
And lose his talent because his purse is low;
The fair tongue makes, where wealth can purchase it,
The foul face beautiful, the fool a wit:--

against this the reader may set in opposition divers other sayings of
the same author. For example,

From honor poverty doth not debar,
Where poor men virtuous and deserving are.

Whate'er fools think, a man is ne'er the worse
If he be wise, though with an empty purse.

The comfort which he gets who wealth enjoys,
The vexing care by which 'tis kept destroys.

And Menander also somewhere magnifies a voluptuous life, and inflames
the minds of vain persons with these amorous strains,

The glorious sun no living thing doth see,
But what's a slave to love as well as we.

But yet elsewhere, on the other side, he fastens on us and pulls us back
to the love of virtue, and checks the rage of lust, when he says thus,

The life that is dishonorably spent,
Be it ne'er so pleasant, yields no true content.

For these lines are contrary to the former, as they are also better and
more profitable; so that by comparing them considerately one cannot but
either be inclined to the better side, or at least flag in the belief of
the worse.

But now, supposing that any of the poets themselves afford no such
correcting passages to solve what they have said amiss, it will then
be advisable to confront them with the contrary sayings of other famous
men, and therewith to sway the scales of our judgment to the better
side. As, when Alexis tempts to debauchery in these verses,

The wise man knows what of all things is best,
Whilst choosing pleasure he slights all the rest.
He thinks life's joys complete in these three sorts,
To drink and eat, and follow wanton sports;
And what besides seems to pretend to pleasure,
If it betide him, counts it over measure,

we must remember that Socrates said the contrary, to wit: that they are
bad men who live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and
drink that they may live. And against the man that wrote i