let me live quiet and at ease. [3764]_Erimus fortasse_ (as he comforted himself) quando illi non erunt, when they are dead and gone, and all their pomp vanished, our memory may flourish: 

[3765]  ------“dant perennes
Stemmata non peritura Musae.”

Let him be my lord, patron, baron, earl, and possess so many goodly castles, ’tis well for me [3766]that I have a poor house, and a little wood, and a well by it, &c.

       “His me consolor victurum suavius, ac si
        Quaestor avus pater atque meus, patruusque fuissent.”

       “With which I feel myself more truly blest
        Than if my sires the quaestor’s power possess’d.”

I live, I thank God, as merrily as he, and triumph as much in this my mean estate, as if my father and uncle had been lord treasurer, or my lord mayor.  He feeds of many dishes, I of one:  [3767]_qui Christum curat, non multum curat quam de preciosis cibis stercus conficiat_, what care I of what stuff my excrements be made? [3768]"He that lives according to nature cannot be poor, and he that exceeds can never have enough,” totus non sufficit orbis, the whole world cannot give him content.  “A small thing that the righteous hath, is better than the riches of the ungodly,” Psal. xxxvii. 19; “and better is a poor morsel with quietness, than abundance with strife,” Prov. xvii. 7.  Be content then, enjoy thyself, and as [3769] Chrysostom adviseth, “be not angry for what thou hast not, but give God hearty thanks for what thou hast received.”

[3770] “Si dat oluscula
        Mensa minuscula
          pace referta,”

       “Ne pete grandia,
        Lautaque prandia
          lite repleta.”

But what wantest thou, to expostulate the matter? or what hast thou not better than a rich man? [3771]"health, competent wealth, children, security, sleep, friends, liberty, diet, apparel, and what not,” or at least mayst have (the means being so obvious, easy, and well known) for as he inculcated to himself,

[3772] “Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem,
        Jucundissime Martialis, haec sunt;
        Res non parta labore, sed relicta,
        Lis nunquam,” &c.

I say again thou hast, or at least mayst have it, if thou wilt thyself, and that which I am sure he wants, a merry heart.  “Passing by a village in the territory of Milan,” saith [3773]St. Austin, “I saw a poor beggar that had got belike his bellyful of meat, jesting and merry; I sighed, and said to some of my friends that were then with me, what a deal of trouble, madness, pain and grief do we sustain and exaggerate unto ourselves, to get that secure happiness which this poor beggar hath prevented us of, and which we peradventure shall never have?  For that which he hath now attained with the begging of some small pieces of silver, a temporal happiness, and present heart’s ease, I cannot compass with all my careful windings, and running in