IMITATORS OF HESIOD. 121

- A fool and his money be soon at debate, Which after, with sorrow, repents him too late." xxiii. 11. " Some spareth too late, and a number with him The fool at the bottom, the wise at the brim : Who careth nor spareth till spent he hath all, Of bobbing, not robbing, be careful he shall." xxviii. 34. At the same time he commends, quite in Hesiod's style, a prudent avoidance of the law-courts : " Leave princes' affairs undescanted on, And tend to such doings as stands thee upon. Fear God, and offend not the prince nor his laws, And keep thyself out of the magistrate's claws." xxix. 39. Quite in Hesiod's groove, too, is Tusser's opinion about borrowing and lending; and his adagial way of dis- couraging the claims of relations and connections to a share in our farm profits savours curiously of the coun- sel of the ' Works and Days : ' " Be pinched by lending for kiffe nor for kin, Nor also by spending, by such as come in : Nor put to thine hand betwixt bark and the tree, Lest through thine own folly so pinched thou be. As lending to neighbour in time of his need Wins love of thy neighbour, and credit doth breed : So never to crave, but to live of thine own, Brings comforts a thousand, to many unknown." xxvii. 30, 31. We have seen, too, how Hesiod makes a point of pre- scribing very strictly the staff which a farmer may