«Magister artis ingeniique largitor venter», venter, or the stomach, is the master of all art, and bestower of genius and invention. «Hunger», we therefore say, «will break through stone walls». «The stomach», Rabelais says, «only speaks by signs, but those signs are more readily obeyed by every one, than the statutes of senates, or the commands of monarchs». To answer is usseless, for El vientre ayuno, no oye ninguno, the stomach has no ears.
Persons who have no property but what is procured by their industry, on which they may subsist, will endeavour more diligently to improve their understandings, than those who, being amply endowed, find every thing provided to their hands, without labour. Crosses are ladders that do lead to heaven. Consonant to which the French say, Vent au visage rend un homme sage, wind in a man's face, that is, adversity, or trouble, makes him wise; and, «a pobreza no ay verguenca», poverty has no shame, that is, want makes men bold, and to descend to means, for their subsistence, which, in better circumstances, they would be ashamed to have recourse to. This, more than all other considerations, should induce every one Messe tenus propria vivere, to live within their means, to let their purse be their master.