Doubtless the fruits of the earth are given for the sustenance of living creatures.
But if thou art content to supply thy wants so far as suffices nature, there is no need to resort to fortune's bounty.

Nature is content with few things, and with a very little of these.

If thou art minded to force superfluities upon her when she is satisfied, that which thou addest will prove either unpleasant or harmful.

But, now, thou thinkest it fine to shine in raiment of divers colours; yet--if, indeed, there is any pleasure in the sight of such things--it is the texture or the artist's skill which I shall admire.
'Or perhaps it is a long train of servants that makes thee happy?
Why, if they behave viciously, they are a ruinous burden to thy house, and exceeding dangerous to their own master; while if they are honest, how canst thou count other men's virtue in the sum of thy possessions?
From all which 'tis plainly proved that not one of these things which thou reckonest in the number of thy possessions is really thine.

And if there is in them no beauty to be desired, why shouldst thou either grieve for their loss or find joy in their continued possession?
While if they are beautiful in their own nature, what is that to thee?
They would have been not less pleasing in themselves, though never included among thy possessions.