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This is an excerpt from John Hooker's Orders enacted
for orphans and for their portions within the citie
of Excester with sundry other instructions incident
to the same. Collected and set foorth by Iohn Vowell
alias Hooker gentleman and chamberlaine of the same
citie, 1575. I have quoted the text from the online
text at Early English Books Online (EEBO). (link
to whole text.)
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From
page 16
And so fareth it vvith all such as doo or shall deale
vvith a greedy couetous man, and a churlish hedgehog,
for be a man neuer so prudent poletique and vvel
adourned vvith vertues and honestie, let him deale
neuer so frendly courteously and liberally, yet if
the couetouse man do ones season & take holde
of hi~ he vvil as sure as the hedgehog by one meanes
or other vnder minde him of his possessions, bereft
him of his thrift, and in the end driue him out of
his house and home, for he is like vnto the Ivie,
vvhose nature is to begin and to take roote first
vnder the root of a tree, vvhich at the first being
but litle, and the leaues gentle and small: springeth
vp vvithout any harme felt therby and girdeth the
tree round about, neuer ceassing vntil he co~e vp
to the top, & the~ hauing thus entred vnder the
root, guirded the body & seased vpon the top,
be the tree neuer so great & mightie: the Iuie
ouercometh him, & he dieth. And so this couetous
Iuie begi~neth as it vvere hu~bly & lovvly, vvith
smooth vvoords, & offereth all curtesies, but
by litle & litle, he so bevvrappeth the yung
gentleman vvith his money, & girdeth him vvith
his bo~ds: that in the end he hath the mastery, and
the yung gentle man of a tree is become a small stick,
to raunge the feeld and to tip daysies beeing novv
in his doublet & his hose, redy to trip a pauian
in Hamons court, and to daunce a [H] galliard
in Tibornes bovver. This is the nature of this churlish
Echinus, of this creeping Iuie, and of this pernicius
Echineis vvhose delight & only felicitie is set
vpon heaping vp of the vvicked ma~mona eue~ to th'uter
ruin of so many as shall deale vvith hi~. And stil
as a vvicked Echineis is sticki~g to the keel of
filthy lucre & gaine. And heerin he hath one
other speciall qualitie or propertie of the Echineis:
for as Plinie vvriteth, if he be kept in salte, as
the Adamant of natrue dravveth Iron vnto it: so vvil
it dravve golde out of any vvater be it neuer so
deep. Note in marg: Plinius. lib. 9 cap. 25. Ea est
enim vis Echenidis asseruati in sale vt aurum quod
deciderit in altissimus puteos, admotus extra hat.
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