Wealth. Poverty. Plenty. Want
Happy is the son whose father went to the devil.
On the other hand, the Portuguese say, “Alas for the son whose father goes to heaven!”708 the presumption being that a man does not go that way whilst amassing great wealth; for “He that is afraid of the devil does not grow rich” (Italian).709 “To do so one has only to turn one’s back on God” (French).710 Audley, a noted lawyer and usurer in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., was asked what might be the value of his newly-obtained office in the Court of Wards. He replied, “It may be worth some thousands of pounds to him who after his death would instantly go to heaven; twice as much to him who would go to purgatory; and nobody knows how much to him who would adventure to go to hell.” Audley’s biographer hints that he did adventure that way for the four hundred thousand pounds he left behind him at his departure. “The river does not become swollen with clear water” (Italian).711 According to a Latin proverb, quoted with approval by St. Jerome, “A rich man is either a rogue or a rogue’s heir.”712 “To be rich one must have a relation at home with the devil” (Italian).713 “Gold goes to the Moor;” i. e., to the man without a conscience (Portuguese).714
“The poets feign,” says Bacon, “that when Plutus, which is riches, is sent from Jupiter, he limps and goes slowly; but when he is sent from Pluto he runs and is swift of foot; meaning that riches gotten by good means and just labour pace slowly, but when they come by the death of others (as by the course of inheritance, testaments, and the like), they come tumbling upon a man. But it might be applied likewise to Pluto, taking him for the devil; for when riches come from the devil (as by fraud and oppression and unjust means) they come upon speed. The ways to enrich are many, and most of them foul.”
“He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent” (Proverbs xxviii. 22). “Who would be rich in a year gets hanged in half a year” (Spanish).715
Plenty makes dainty.716
As the sow fills the draught sours.
Hunger is the best sauce.
“Hunger makes raw beans sweet” (German). “Hunger is the best cook” (German). “The full stomach loatheth the honeycomb, but to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet” (Proverbs). “Brackish water is sweet in a dry land” (Portuguese).717
A hungry horse makes a clean manger.
Hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings.
A hungry man sees far.
“A hungry man discovers more than a hundred lawyers” (Spanish).718 Want sharpens industry and invention. “He thinks of everything who wants bread” (French).719 “A poor man is all schemes” (Spanish).720
“Lorgitor artium, ingeniique magister
Venter.”
“Poverty and hunger have many learned disciples” (German).721 “Poverty is the sixth sense.”722 “It is cunning: it catches even a fox” (German).723
Need makes the old wife trot.724
Need makes the naked man run.
Need makes the naked quean spin.
“Hunger sets the dog a-hunting” (Italian).725 “Hunger drives the wolf out of the wood” (Italian).726
Hunger will break through stone walls.
“A hungry dog fears not the stick” (Italian);727 whereas “The full-fed sheep is frightened at her own tail” (Spanish).728
Poverty parteth good fellowship.
An old Scotch song says:—
“When I hae saxpence under my thumb,
Then I get credit in ilka town;
But when I hae naethin they bid me gang by:
Hech! poverty parts gude company.”
Poverty is no crime.
Some say it is worse. “Poverty is no vice, but it is a sort of leprosy” (French).729
Footnotes
708 Guay do filho que o pai vai a paraiso.
709 Chi ha paura del diavolo non fa roba.
710 Il ne faut que tourner le dos à Dieu pour devenir riche.
711 Il fiume non s’ingrossa d’acqua chiara.
712 Dives aut iniquus aut iniqui hæres.
713 Por esser riceo bisogna avere un parente a casa al diavolo.
714 Vaise o ouro ao mouro.
715 Quien en un año quiere ser rico, al medio le ahorcan.
716 Abondance engendre fâcherie.
717 Agoa salobra na terra seca he doce.
718 Mas descubre un hambriento que cien letrados.
719 De tout s’avise à qui pain faut.
720 Hombre pobre todo es trazas.
721 Armuth und Hunger haben viel gelehrte Jünger.
722 Armuth ist der sechste Sinn.
723 Armuth ist listig, sie fängt auch einen Fuchs.
724 The same in Italian, Bisogna fa trottar la vecchia; and in French, Besoin fait vieille trotter.
725 Fa forame il can per fame.
726 La fame caccia il lupo fuor del bosco.
727 Can affamato non ha paura del bastone.
728 Carnero harto de su rabo se espanta.
729 Pauvreté n’est pas vice, mais c’est une espèce de laiderie.