The Holy and Profane States by Thomas Fuller; With Some Account of the Author and His Writings (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE GOOD MASTER. TTE is the heart in the midst of his house- -'- hold, primum vivens et ultimum moriens, first up and last abed, if not in his person yet in his providence. In his carriage he aimeth at his own and his servants' good, and to advance both. He oversees the works of his servants. One said that the dust that fell from the master's shoes was the best compost to manure ground. The lion out of state will not run whilst any one looks upon him; but some servants out of slothfulness will not run except some do look upon them, spurred on with their master's eye. Chiefly he is careful exactly to take his servants' reckonings. If their master takes no account of them, they will make small account of him, and care not what they spend who are never brought to an audit. He provides them victuals, wholesome, sufficient, and seasonable. He doth not so allay his servants' bread to debase it so much as to make that servants' meat which is not man's meat. He alloweth them also convenient rest and recreation; whereas some masters, like a bad conscience, will not suffer them to sleep that have them. He remembers the old law of the Saxon King Ina, If a villain work onSunday by his lord's command, he shall be free. The wages he contracts for, he duly and truly pays to his servants. The same word in the Greek, ids, signifies rust and poison: and some strong poison is made of the rust of metals, but none more venomous than the rust of money in the rich man's purse, unjustly detained from the laborer, which will poison and infect his whole estate. He never threatens his servant, but rather presently corrects him. Indeed, conditional threatenings with promise of pardon on amendment, are good and useful. Absolute threatenings torment more, reform less, making servants keep th...