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HIPPOMACHUS, a master of the exercises, when some
were commending a tall man that had long hands as one
that promised fair to be good at fisticuffs, replied, A fit man
indeed, if the victor's laurel were to be hanged up aloft,
and should be his that could best reach it and take it down.
We may say the same to those that esteem so extravagantly
and repute it so great a felicity to possess fair fields, stately
mansion-houses, and a great deal of money lying by them,
—that they were in the right, if happiness were to be
bought and sold. You may see indeed many-persons that
choose rather to be rich and at the same time very miserable, than to part with their money and become happy.
But, alas! indolency and repose of spirit, magnanimity,
constancy, resolution, and contentment of mind,—these
are not a money-purchase. Being wealthy is not despising
wealth; nor is possessing things superfluous the same as
not needing things superfluous.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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