[3690] “O si pateant pectora divitum,
        Quantos intus sublimis agit
        Fortuna metus?  Brutia Coro
        Pulsante fretum mitior unda est.”

       “O that their breasts were but conspicuous,
        How full of fear within, how furious? 
        The narrow seas are not so boisterous.”

Yea, but he hath the world at will that is rich, the good things of the earth:  suave est de magno tollere acervo, (it is sweet to draw from a great heap) he is a happy man, [3691]adored like a god, a prince, every man seeks to him, applauds, honours, admires him.  He hath honours indeed, abundance of all things; but (as I said) withal [3692]"pride, lust, anger, faction, emulation, fears, cares, suspicion enter with his wealth;” for his intemperance he hath aches, crudities, gouts, and as fruits of his idleness, and fullness, lust, surfeiting and drunkenness, all manner of diseases:  pecuniis augetur improbitas, the wealthier, the more dishonest. [3693]"He is exposed to hatred, envy, peril and treason, fear of death, degradation,” &c. ’tis lubrica statio et proxima praecipitio, and the higher he climbs, the greater is his fall.

[3694]  ------“celsae graviore casu
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summos”

Fulgura montes, the lightning commonly sets on fire the highest towers; [3695]in the more eminent place he is, the more subject to fall.

       “Rumpitur innumeris arbos uberrima pomis,
        Et subito nimiae praecipitantur opes.”

As a tree that is heavy laden with fruit breaks her own boughs, with their own greatness they ruin themselves:  which Joachimus Camerarius hath elegantly expressed in his 13 Emblem cent. 1. Inopem se copia fecit.  Their means is their misery, though they do apply themselves to the times, to lie, dissemble, collogue and flatter their lieges, obey, second his will and commands as much as may be, yet too frequently they miscarry, they fat themselves like so many hogs, as [3696]Aeneas Sylvius observes, that when they are full fed, they may be devoured by their princes, as Seneca by Nero was served, Sejanus by Tiberius, and Haman by Ahasuerus:  I resolve with Gregory, potestas culminis, est tempestas mentis; et quo dignitas altior, casus gravior, honour is a tempest, the higher they are elevated, the more grievously depressed.  For the rest of his prerogatives which wealth affords, as he hath more his expenses are the greater.  “When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good cometh to the owners, but the beholding thereof with the eyes?” Eccles. iv. 10.

[3697] “Millia frumenti tua triverit area centum,
Non tuus hinc capiet venter plus quam meus”------

“an evil sickness,” Solomon calls it, “and reserved to them for an evil,” 12 verse.  “They that will be rich fall into many fears and temptations, into many foolish and noisome lusts, which drown men in perdition.”