The Art of Divine Contentment

It is the fancy which raiseth the price of things above their real worth; what is the reason one Tulip is worth five pounds, another perhaps not worth one shilling? fancy raiseth the price; the difference is rather imaginary then real: so, why it should be better to have thousands then hundreds, is, because men fancy it so; if we could fancy a lower condition better,^* as having less care in it, and less account, it would be far more eligible; the water that springs out of the rock, drinks as sweet, as if it came out of a golden chalice^*; things are as we fancy them. ⟨p. 267⟩Ever since the fall the fancy is distempered; God saw that the imagination of the thoughts of his heart were evil^*. Fancy looks through wrong spectacles; pray that God will sanctify your fancy; a lower condition would content, if the mind and fancy were set right. Diogenes preferred his Cynical life before Alexander's royalty; he fancied his little cloister best. Fabricius a poor man, yet despised the gold of King Pyrrhus.