and out,” [3774]"And surely the beggar was very merry, but I was heavy; he was secure, but I timorous.  And if any man should ask me now, whether I had rather be merry, or still so solicitous and sad, I should say, merry.  If he should ask me again, whether I had rather be as I am, or as this beggar was, I should sure choose to be as I am, tortured still with cares and fears; but out of peevishness, and not out of truth.”  That which St. Austin said of himself here in this place, I may truly say to thee, thou discontented wretch, thou covetous niggard, thou churl, thou ambitious and swelling toad, ’tis not want but peevishness which is the cause of thy woes; settle thine affection, thou hast enough.

[3775] “Denique sit finis quaerendi, quoque habeas plus,
        Pauperiem metuas minus, et finire laborem
        Incipias; parto, quod avebas, utere.”

Make an end of scraping, purchasing this manor, this field, that house, for this and that child; thou hast enough for thyself and them: 

[3776]  ------“Quod petis hic est,
Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus.”

’Tis at hand, at home already, which thou so earnestly seekest.  But

------“O si angulus ille
Proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum,”

O that I had but that one nook of ground, that field there, that pasture, O si venam argenti fors quis mihi monstret—­.  O that I could but find a pot of money now, to purchase, &c., to build me a new house, to marry my daughter, place my son, &c. [3777]"O if I might but live a while longer to see all things settled, some two or three years, I would pay my debts,” make all my reckonings even:  but they are come and past, and thou hast more business than before.  “O madness, to think to settle that in thine old age when thou hast more, which in thy youth thou canst not now compose having but a little.” [3778]Pyrrhus would first conquer Africa, and then Asia, et tum suaviter agere, and then live merrily and take his ease:  but when Cyneas the orator told him he might do that already, id jam posse fieri, rested satisfied, condemning his own folly. Si parva licet componere magnis, thou mayst do the like, and therefore be composed in thy fortune.  Thou hast enough:  he that is wet in a bath, can be no more wet if he be flung into Tiber, or into the ocean itself:  and if thou hadst all the world, or a solid mass of gold as big as the world, thou canst not have more than enough; enjoy thyself at length, and that which thou hast; the mind is all; be content, thou art not poor, but rich, and so much the richer as [3779]Censorinus well writ to Cerellius, quanto pauciora optas, non quo plura possides, in wishing less, not having more.  I say then, Non adjice opes, sed minue cupiditates (’tis [3780]Epicurus’ advice), add no more wealth, but diminish thy desires; and as [3781]Chrysostom well seconds him, Si vis ditari, contemne divitias; that’s true plenty, not