Timon, or the Misanthrope (23-25)

As for the man who has been flung head over ears into riches, an uncultivated, coarse-grained fellow who still shudders at the irons, pricks up his ear if anyone casually flicks a whip in passing, and worships the mill as if it were the seat of the mysteries, he is no longer endurable to those who encounter him, but insults gentlemen and whips his fellow-slaves, just to see if he himself can do that sort of thing, until at length he falls in with a prostitute or takes a fancy to breed horses or gives himself into the keeping of toadies who swear that he is better looking than Nireus, better born than Cecrops or Codrus, sharper witted than Odysseus and richer than sixteen Croesuses in one; and then in a moment, poor devil, he pours out all that was

accumulated little by little through many perjuries, robberies and villainies.

HERMES Yes, that is just about the way of it. But when you go on your own feet, how do you find the way, since you are so blind, and how do you tell who the people are whom Zeus sends you to because he thinks they deserve to be rich?

RICHES Do you suppose I find the way or tell who they are? Good Heavens, not a bit of it! Otherwise I would not have left Aristides in the lurch"to--go to Hipponicus and Callias and a great many others who do not deserve a copper.[*] HERMES But what do you do when he sends you down?

RICHES I wander up and down, roaming about until I come upon someone unawares, and that man, whoever he may be who happens on me, takes me home and keeps me, paying homage to you, Hermes, for his unexpected stroke of good-luck.[*]

HERMES Then you have cheated Zeus, who thinks that you observe his decrees and enrich those who in his opinion deserve riches?

RICHES Yes, and very properly, my friend, for although he

knew that I was blind, he kept sending me to search for a thing so hard to find, which long ago became eclipsed in the world; even a Lynceus could not find it easily, so dim and tiny is its light. So, as the good men are few and wicked men in great numbers fill the cities, it is easier for me to fall in with then in my wanderings and to get into their nets.

HERMES Then how is it that when you leave them you escape easily, since you do not know the way?

RICHES For some reason I become sharp of eye and swift of foot then, but only for the time of ny escape.