IV. AT LAST.

A LADY of quality, formerly forward to promote our civil wars, and whose well-intending zeal had sent in all her plate to Guildhall, was earnestly discoursing with a divine concerning these times, a little before dinner; her face respecting the cupboard in the room, which was furnished with plenty of pure Venice glasses: “Now,” said she, “I plainly perceive, that I and many of my judgment have been abused with the specious pretences of liberty and religion, till in the indiscreet pursuance thereof we are almost fallen into slavery and atheism.”

To whom the other, betwixt jest and earnest, replied: “Madam, it is no wonder that now your eyes are opened; for so long as this cupboard was full of thick and massy plate, you could perceive nothing through them; but now so many clear and transparent glasses are substituted in their room, all things are become obvious to your intuition.”

The possessing of superfluous wealth sometimes doth hinder our clear apprehensions of matters; like a pearl in the eye of the soul, prejudicing the sight thereof; whilst poverty may prove a good collyrium, or eye-salve unto us, to make a true discovery of those things we knew not before.