#6: Poggio Bracciolini, On Avarice
The following paragraph, written in the essay, On Avarice, by Poggio Bracciolini discusses virtue and avarice. Write an essay in which you define Poggio's attitude toward avarice and analyze how he conveys that attitude. In your discussion, consider tone, word choice, and other rhetorical strategies.
But you are endowed with an immortal soul and it ought to be enriched, cultivated, embellished, and no great effort ought to be expended on other things. Material wealth should be used for provisioning this very short and transitory life. What do you really seek, most miserable of mortals? What mind, what intellect leads those astray so far from the truth? If you wish to become rich, you can obtain wealth quicker and more easily by despising it than by lusting after it. If you desire quiet, this should be sought by other means. The pure and sincere mind will find peace and quiet, but not in the treasure room where great riches have been accumulated to the point that you are embroiled in even greater troubles. If you want peace of heart, you will find it not in gold but in virtue, which has been placed beyond every fear. If you want to be ennobled, an excellent character and rejoicing in its virtue will make you noble. If you are concerned with leaving a fine inheritance for your children and grandchildren, you can bequeath them nothing more outstanding, nothing more solid than virtue and glory. If power pleases you, a man who can govern himself will be able to govern anyone. The good mind wilt possess the kingdom. Seeking money will make you weak, ignoble, timid, restless, and poor. Therefore, because evil desires blind you and lead you astray, you can see nothing that is just, nothing honorable. Why do you abandon virtue -- a firm and stable quality within the power of our will -- and chose those things of the appetites whose transient and certain qualities are under the influence of Fortune? Those things you seek with so much toil and trouble, on which you have expended so much effort and spent your entire life -- I mean wealth, riches, farms, houses, and other possessions -- in short, those things that you consider so valuable are really quite fragile and fleeting. Material goods are possessed on loan, and no possession will last with you for a long time, and nothing will go with you at death. When you depart this life, you will leave these things behind. Naked, impoverished, deserted, you will descend into Hell to plead your case, without the aid of a lawyer, and you will tremble before a judge who cannot be corrupted by gold. You will find no aid, no defense, no advocate. The only thing that will count is your own virtue, if you acted justly when you were alive.
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