Page:Fables of Aesop and other eminent mythologists.djvu/93

Rh . What Signifies a Gay Furniture, and a Pamper'd Carcas; or any other Outward Appearance, without an Intrinick Value of Worth and Virtue? What igniies Beauty, Strength, Youth, Fortune, Embroder'd Furniture, Gawdy Boes, or any of Thoe Temporary, and Uncertain Satisfactions, that may be taken from us with the very next Breath we draw? What Aurance can any man have of a Poeion that Every Turn of State, Every Puff of Air, Change of Humour, and the lead of a Million of Common Caualties may Deprive him of? How many Huffing Sparks have we een in the World, that in the ame day have been both the Idols, and the Sport and Scorn of the ame Slaves and Fools? Nay, how many Emperours and Princes, that in the Ruff of All their Glory have been taken down from the Head of a Conquering Army, to the Wheel of the Victors Chariot? Where's that Advantage under the Sun that any but a Mad man would be Proud of? Or where's That Pride it elf that any Mortal in his Right Wits, would not find Reaon to be Ahamed of? Take it ingly, and what is there More in't, than an Unnatural, and an Unmanly Tympany, that Ries in a Bubble, and pends it elf in a Blat? Take it in Complication, and we find a Thouand Weaknees, Iniquities, and Vexatious Cutting Mieries wrapt up in't. What can be more Imprudent than to Affect Reputation by the Methods of Infamy? To Apire to Greatnes by the ways of becoming Odious and Contemptible? And to Propoe the Erecting of a Mighty Fabrick, upon a Bottom that will Certainly ink under the Weight?

The Diappointments of Thoe that Build their Hopes in this World upon a Fale Bais, fall under Thee Three General Heads. The Advantages we Value our elves upon, may either be Taken from Us; or We from Them: Or, which is much at One, we may be brought by a Thouand Accidents to loe the Ue and Rellih of them. As firt for the Purpoe; they may be taken from Us, by Cheats, Robberies, Subornations, Fale Oaths, Forgeries, Corrupt Judges; To ay nothing of Fires, Earthquakes, Tempets, Inundations, Inurrections, and Other Violences without Number. Secondly, We may be taken from Them, by as many Ways as there are out of This World. A Fly or a Hair hall do the Office of a Rope. And then for the Third Branch, an Indipoition, a Feaver, an Acute Pain, an Impetuous Paion, an Anxious Thought, Impotency and Old Age, hall do the Work of Taking away both the Gut, and the Comfort of them. Nay, the very Los of One Pleaure is enough to Damp, if not to Detroy the Rellih of Another.

But now to carry the Alluion One Step further yet; It may be literally Aerted, that All Proud Men, over and above the Stroke of a Divine Judgment, are Mierable, even in Themelves, and that no Circumtances in This World can ever make them Other. Their Appetites are Inatiable, and their Hearts conequently never at Ret; Whether it be Wealth, Power, Honour, Popular Eteem, or whatever ele they pretend to. They Envy, and they are Envy'd. 'Tis Impoible for them to be at ret, without Enjoying what it is Impoible for them to Attain. They live Gaping after More, and in a perpetual Fear of Loing what they have already. The Higher they are Rais'd, the Giddier they are; the more Slippery is their Standing, and the Deeper the Fall. They are never Well, o long as Any thing is above them: And their Ambition carries them on to the Supplanting of their very Matters and Makers: When yet by a mot Ridiculous Contradiction, they lie Effectually, (in the