The Anatomy of Melancholy

Subsect. 12. φιλαργυρία Covetousnesse, a Cause.

Plutarch, in his book whether the diseases of the body be more grievous then those of the soul; is of opinion, if you will examine all the causes of our miseries in this life, you shall finde them most part, to have had their beginning from stubborne anger, that furious desire of contention, or some injust or immoderate affection, as Covetousness, &c.

From whence are warres and contentions amongst you? S. Iames askes: I will adde usury, fraud, rapine, Simony, oppression, lying, swearing, bearing false witness, &c. are they not from this fountain of covetousness, that greediness in getting, tenacity in keeping, sordidity in spending; that they are so wicked, injust against God, their neighbor, themselves, all comes hence.

The desire of money is the root of all evil, and they that lust after it, pierce themselves through with many sorrowes, 1 Tim. 6.10. Hippocrates therefore in his Epistle to Crateva an Herbalist, gives him this good counsel, that if it were possible, amongst other hearbs, he should cut up that weed of Covetousness by the roots, that there be no remainder left, and then know this for a certainty, that together with their bodies, thou mayst quickly cure all the diseases of their minds.

For it is indeed the patterne, Image, Epitome of all Melancholy, the fountain of many miseries, much discontented care and woe; this inordinate, or immoderate desire of gain, to get or keep money, as Bonaventure defines it: or, as Austin describes it, a madness of the soul, Gregory a torture; Chrysostome, an insatiable drunkenness; Cyprian, blindness, speciosum supplicium, a plague subverting Kingdomes, families, and incurable disease:

Budæus, an ill habit, yielding to no remedies: neither Æsculapius nor Plutus can cure them: a continual plague, saith Solomon, and vexation of spirit, another Hell. I know there be some of opinion, that covetous men are happy, and worldly wise, that there is more pleasure in getting of wealth then in spending, and no delight in the world like unto it.

’Twas Bias problem of old, With what art thou not weary? with getting mony. What is most delectable? to gain. What is it, trow you, that makes a poor man labour all his life time, carry such great burdens, fare so hardly, macerate himself, and endure so much misery, undergo such base offices with so great patience, to rise up early, and lye down late, if there were not an extraordinary delight in getting and keeping of mony?

What makes a Merchant that hath no need, satis superque domi, to range all over the world, through all those intemperate Zones of heat & cold, voluntarily to venture his life, and be content with such miserable famine, nasty usage, in a stinking ship; if there were not a pleasure and hope to get mony, which doth season the rest, and mitigate his indefatigable pains?