The Essays, vol 17 | Page 8

am, indeed, for the most part at home; but
I would be there better pleased than anywhere else:
"Sit meae sedes utinam senectae, Sit modus lasso maris, et viarum,
Militiaeque."
["Let my old age have a fixed seat; let there be a limit to fatigues from
the sea, journeys, warfare."--Horace, Od., ii. 6, 6.]
I know not whether or no I shall bring it about. I could wish that,
instead of some other member of his succession, my father had
resigned to me the passionate affection he had in his old age to his
household affairs; he was happy in that he could accommodate his
desires to his fortune, and satisfy himself with what he had; political
philosophy may to much purpose condemn the meanness and sterility
of my employment, if I can once come to relish it, as he did. I am of
opinion that the most honourable calling is to serve the public, and to

be useful to many,
"Fructus enim ingenii et virtutis, omnisque praestantiae, tum maximus
capitur, quum in proximum quemque confertur:"
["For the greatest enjoyment of evil and virtue, and of all excellence, is
experienced when they are conferred on some one nearest."--Cicero,
De Amicil., c.]
for myself, I disclaim it; partly out of conscience (for where I see the
weight that lies upon such employments, I perceive also the little means
I have to supply it; and Plato, a master in all political government
himself, nevertheless took care to abstain from it), and partly out of
cowardice. I content myself with enjoying the world without bustle;
only-to live an excusable life, and such as may neither be a burden to
myself nor to any other.
Never did any man more fully and feebly suffer himself to be governed
by a third person than I should do, had I any one to whom to entrust
myself. One of my wishes at this time should be, to have a son-in-law
that knew handsomely how to cherish my old age, and to rock it asleep;
into whose hands I might deposit, in full sovereignty, the management
and use of all my goods, that he might dispose of them as I do, and get
by them what I get, provided that he on his part were truly
acknowledging, and a friend. But we live in a world where loyalty of
one's own children is unknown.
He who has the charge of my purse in his travels, has it purely and
without control; he could cheat me thoroughly, if he came to reckoning;
and, if he is not a devil, I oblige him to deal faithfully with me by so
entire a trust:
"Multi fallere do cuerunt, dum timent falli; et aliis jus peccandi
suspicando fecerunt."
["Many have taught others to deceive, while they fear to be deceived,
and, by suspecting them, have given them a title to do ill."--Seneca,
Epist., 3.]

The most common security I take of my people is ignorance; I never
presume any to be vicious till I have first found them so; and repose the
most confidence in the younger sort, that I think are least spoiled by ill
example. I had rather be told at two months' end that I have spent four
hundred crowns, than to have my ears battered every night with three,
five, seven: and I have been, in this way, as little robbed as another. It
is true, I am willing enough not to see it; I, in some sort, purposely,
harbour a kind of perplexed, uncertain knowledge of my money: up to a
certain point, I am content to doubt. One must leave a little room for
the infidelity or indiscretion of a servant; if you have left enough, in
gross, to do your business, let the overplus of Fortune's liberality run a
little more freely at her mercy; 'tis the gleaner's portion. After all, I do
not so much value the fidelity of my people as I contemn their injury.
What a mean and ridiculous thing it is for a man to study his money, to
delight in handling and telling it over and over again! 'Tis by this
avarice makes its approaches.
In eighteen years that I have had my estate in my, own hands, I could
never prevail with myself either to read over my deeds or examine my
principal affairs, which ought, of necessity, to pass under my
knowledge and inspection. 'Tis not a philosophical disdain of worldly
and transitory things; my taste is not purified to that degree, and I value
them at as great a rate, at least, as they are worth; but 'tis, in truth, an
inexcusable and childish laziness and negligence. What would I not
rather do than read a contract? or than, as a slave to my own business,
tumble over