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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities

He who lives according to nature cannot be poor, and he who goes beyond it can never have enough: “The whole world is not sufficient.” The entire world cannot satisfy him. “The little that the righteous man has is better than the riches of the ungodly,” Psalm 37:19; and “a poor morsel with quiet is better than abundance with strife,” Proverbs 17:7.

Be content, then; enjoy your life. As Chrysostom advises, do not be angry about what you lack, but give God heartfelt thanks for what you have received.

If a little table Offers humble greens And is full of peace, Do not seek grand And sumptuous dinners Filled with strife.

But to reason the matter out, what do you lack? What do you not have in better measure than a rich man—health, sufficient means, children, security, sleep, friends, freedom, food, clothes, and everything else? Or at least you may have them, since the means are so readily available, easy, and well known. For, as he impressed upon himself:

These are the things that make life happier, My dearest Martial: Wealth acquired by inheritance, not toil; No lawsuits, and so on.

I repeat: you have it, or at least may have it if you choose—and something I am sure he lacks, a cheerful heart.

“Passing a village in the territory of Milan,” says Saint Augustine, “I saw a poor beggar who had apparently filled his belly with food, joking and merry. I sighed and said to some friends with me: how much trouble, madness, pain, and grief we endure and heap upon ourselves to gain that carefree happiness which this poor beggar has reached before us, and which we may never attain! What he has now achieved by begging a few small silver coins—temporary happiness and present peace of heart—I cannot obtain with all my anxious twists and turns, my running here and there.”

“Certainly the beggar was very merry, while I was sad; he was at ease, while I was afraid. If anyone asked me now whether I would rather be merry or remain so anxious and sad, I would answer, ‘Merry.’ If he asked again whether I would rather be as I am or as this beggar was, I would certainly choose to be as I am, still tortured by cares and fears—but from perversity, not from truth.”

What Saint Augustine says of himself here, I may truly say to you: you discontented wretch, you greedy miser, you churl, you ambitious, puffed-up toad! Your troubles come from perversity, not want. Bring your desires to rest: you have enough.

At last put an end to acquiring; the more you have, The less you should fear poverty, and begin To end your toil: use what you longed for, now acquired.

Stop scraping together money, buying this manor, this field, that house, for one child and another. You have enough for yourself and them.

What you seek is here; It is at Ulubrae, if an even mind does not fail you.

What you seek so earnestly is at hand, already at home. But—

If only that neighbouring corner could be added, Which now spoils the shape of my little farm!

If only I had that one corner of land, that field over there, that pasture!

If only someone might show me a vein of silver!

If only I could find a pot of money now, to buy property, build a new house, marry off my daughter, find my son a position, and so on! If only I could live a little longer to see everything settled—two or three years—I would pay my debts and balance all my accounts. But those years have come and gone, and you have more business than before. What madness to think you can settle things in old age, when you have more, if you cannot put them in order now, in youth, with only a little!

Pyrrhus intended first to conquer Africa, then Asia, “and then live pleasantly”—then live merrily and take his ease. But when Cineas the orator told him that he could do so already, “that it could be done now,” he rested content, condemning his own folly. “If small things may be compared with great,” you may do the same; so be at peace with your fortune.

You have enough. A man wet in a bath can be no wetter if thrown into the Tiber, or into the ocean itself. If you possessed the whole world, or a solid mass of gold as large as the world, you could not have more than enough. At last enjoy your life and what you have. The mind is everything. Be content: you are rich, not poor, and richer, as Censorinus aptly wrote to Cerellius, “the fewer things you wish for, not the more you possess”—by wanting less, not having more.

I say, then, “Do not add riches; reduce your desires”—Epicurus’s advice. Add no more wealth, but diminish your wants. Chrysostom aptly supports him: “If you want to become rich, despise riches.” True abundance consists in not needing wealth, rather than having it: “Not possessing, but not needing, is true abundance.” There is more glory in despising riches than in possessing them; “and to need nothing belongs to the gods.”

How many people could I list who are deaf, unable to speak, limping, lame, blind, or miserable—poor and afflicted as well? People imprisoned or banished, galley slaves, people condemned to mines, quarries, shackles, dungeons, lifelong bondage. You are richer and happier than all of them; you can give them charity. Compared with them, you are a lord, a minor prince. Be content, then, I say; grumble and mutter no more, for you are poor in your own estimation, not in fact.

6801.The marginal Latin adapts Seneca, Consolation to Helvia 11.4; the printed title ad Albium differs from that identification. Burton’s Psalm 37:19 corresponds to 37:16, and Proverbs 17:7 to 17:1. The original references remain visible rather than being silently corrected. The whole-world phrase is a familiar classical expression; its immediate source here remains unlocated.

6804.The rhyming Latin inscription contrasts a tiny, peaceful meal of vegetables with splendid dinners full of contention. Burton cites Chytraeus’s record of its position in a dining room. The translation follows the six short printed lines without forcing an English rhyme.

6807.Martial, Epigrams 10.47.1–3 and the opening of line 5; Burton omits the line about an agreeable farm and a lasting hearth, and changes faciant to faciunt. The poem addresses Julius Martialis, although Burton introduces it as something impressed upon himself. The quotation remains excerpted rather than being silently completed.

6809.Augustine, Confessions 6.6.9–10. Vicus Mediolanensis is a street in Milan, not a village in its territory; Burton’s English rendering is preserved. Augustine goes on to identify the beggar’s merriment with drunkenness and to distinguish it from true joy. Burton omits that qualification. Prevented us means reached it before us, not prevented us from having it; careful means anxious.

6811.Peevishness here means perverse or wilful discontent. Affection means the direction of one’s desires and passions. The invective is Burton’s direct address, not a continuation of Augustine’s quotation.

6813.Horace, Satires 1.1.92–94, adapted. Burton’s quoque (understood here as the more) differs from cumque (and since), and utere (use) replaces the continuation in Horace. The modern version renders Burton’s exhortation, while recording the altered text.

6815.Horace, Epistles 1.11.29–30. Ulubrae was a small Italian town, an example of an unremarkable place where a balanced mind may still find happiness. Burton follows the quotation with his own application to contentment at home.

6816.Horace, Satires 2.6.8–9. The coveted neighbouring plot makes the existing small farm irregular in shape; denormat therefore means spoils its outline. The speaker’s wish exposes the persistence of acquisitive desire.

6817.Horace, Satires 2.6.10 has urnam argenti, a pot of silver, and fors quae, a chance that. Burton prints venam, a vein, and quis, someone. The fresh translation follows his printed Latin, while his following English pot of mony is also retained; the inconsistency remains visible.

6819.Place my son means establish him in a position or livelihood. The long Cardano margin gives eight or ten months and then years; Burton’s English application gives two or three years. Both forms are retained. The Latin account-book phrase is translated in its financial context; exact collation with On the Variety of Things remains pending.

6821.Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus 14, describes a projected sequence through Italy, Sicily, Libya/Carthage, Macedonia and Greece, not Burton’s Africa then Asia. Crucially, Pyrrhus is troubled by Cineas’s reasoning but does not abandon his ambition; Burton makes him rest satisfied. Both changes are preserved and identified. Si parva licet componere magnis means if small things may be compared with great; the wording is a familiar Virgilian formula.

6823.Censorinus, On the Birthday 1, addresses Quintus Caerellius (Burton’s Cerellius) and locates wealth in wanting less. Burton abbreviates the wording. The bath analogy argues that sufficiency cannot be exceeded in kind; it is part of the consolation, not a measurement of material resources.

6826.The Epicurus maxim is attributed through Stobaeus; the Chrysostom reference remains to be checked in its historical numbering. The closing nihil egere est deorum also appears in Censorinus, On the Birthday 1, which attributes the thought to Xenophon’s Socrates. Its point is divine freedom from need.

6828.Halt and lame overlap as terms for impaired mobility; gives are gyves or shackles. Burton compares his addressee with people suffering both poverty and further deprivation. The next paragraph immediately tests the consolation with an objection from people who genuinely cannot support themselves.