Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/109

Rh quiet, and do their own business: for artificers and husbandmen are necessary in all governments: but, in such seasons, the rich are the publick mark, because they are oftentimes of no use but to be plundered; like some sort of birds, who are good for nothing but their feathers; and so fall a prey to the strongest side.

Let us proceed, on the other side, to examine the disadvantages that the rich and the great lie under, with respect to the happiness of the present life.

First then; While health, as we have said, is the general portion of the lower sort, the gout, the dropsy, the stone, the colick, and all other diseases, are continually haunting the palaces of the rich and the great, as the natural attendants upon laziness and luxury. Neither does the rich man eat his sumptuous fare with half the appetite and relish, that even the beggars do the crumbs which fall from his table: but, on the contrary, he is full of loathing and disgust, or at best of indifference, in the midst of plenty. Thus their intemperance shortens their lives, without pleasing their appetites.

Business, fear, guilt, design, anguish, and vexation, are continually buzzing about the curtains of the rich and the powerful, and will hardly suffer them to close their eyes, unless when they are dozed with the fumes of strong liquors.

It is a great mistake to imagine, that the rich want but few things; their wants are more numerous, more craving, and urgent, than those of poorer men: for these endeavour only at the necessaries of life, which make them happy, and they think no farther: but the desire of power and wealth is endless, and therefore impossible to be satisfied with any acquisitions. Rh