jus cogit, obolus literatum pascit, metallum sanitatem conciliat, aes amicos conglutinat. [2230]And therefore not without good cause, John de Medicis, that rich Florentine, when he lay upon his death-bed, calling his sons, Cosmo and Laurence, before him, amongst other sober sayings, repeated this, animo quieto digredior, quod vos sanos et divites post me relinquam, “It doth me good to think yet, though I be dying, that I shall leave you, my children, sound and rich:”  for wealth sways all.  It is not with us, as amongst those Lacedaemonian senators of Lycurgus in Plutarch, “He preferred that deserved best, was most virtuous and worthy of the place, [2231]not swiftness, or strength, or wealth, or friends carried it in those days:”  but 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.